iWorld
Netflix updates IC 814’s opening disclaimer responding to MIB concerns
Mumbai: Well, it did turn out to be a storm in a teacup – the huge controversy over IC814: The Kandahar Hijack, the original series on streamer Netflix.
Netflix India content head Monika Shergill met the with information & broadcasting secretary Sanjay Jaju for about 40 minutes who informed her about the sentiments expressed by a large section of the society about the Hindu code names that were ascribed to two of the Pakistani terrorists who hijacked an Indian Airlines plane from Delhi and flew it to Kandahar from where they negotiated the release of three Pakistani prisoners in exchange for freedom for the plane’s passengers. He also apprised her of the need for platforms to be sensitive while handling such topics.
Armed with research and factual documents, Shergill pointed out that the intent of the platform and the film maker was to be as factually accurate in the dramatized version as possible. And the series was based on a book Flight Into Fear by the pilot Devi Sharan (and Srinjoy Chowdhury) of the hijacked plane which also pointed out that two of the hijackers had actually referred to themselves as Bhola and Shankar as long as the plane was under their control. She pointed out to a home ministry note released around that time which also acknowledged the same. She also assured the secretary that Netflix will ensure that the content of its future projects will take into account the sentiments of the Indian public.
Later in the evening Shergill, came out with a statement saying that Netflix had updated the opening disclaimer of the series.
“For the benefit of audiences unfamiliar with the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight 814, the opening disclaimer has been updated to include the real and code names of the hijackers,” she said through a spokesperson. “The code names in the series reflect those used during the actual event. India has a rich culture of storytelling — and we are committed to showcasing these stories and their authentic representation.”
Gaming
India’s broadcasters say no to Fifa World Cup 2026
Fifa has slashed its asking price by 65 per cent but India’s broadcasters are still not buying
MUMBAI: The world’s biggest sporting event cannot find a single taker in the world’s most sports-mad nation. Fifa’s television rights for the 2026 World Cup remain unsold in India, and the clock is ticking loudly.
To shift the property, world football’s governing body has already swallowed hard and cut its asking price from $100m to $35m, bundling in the 2030 edition as a sweetener. It has not worked. Indian broadcasters have looked at the offer, done the sums and quietly walked away.
The reasons are brutally simple. The 2026 tournament, co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, kicks off in a time zone that turns India’s primetime into a graveyard shift. Most matches will air between midnight and 7am IST, a scheduling catastrophe for advertisers chasing mass reach. The 2022 Qatar edition was a gift by comparison, with matches dropping neatly into Indian evenings. North America offers no such luxury.
The market itself has also changed beyond recognition. The merger of Star India and Viacom18 into JioStar has gutted the competitive tension that once sent sports rights prices soaring. Where rival bidders once slugged it out, there is now a single dominant buyer, and it is in no hurry. JioStar has valued the rights at roughly $25m, a full $10m below Fifa’s already-discounted floor price. That gap has so far proved unbridgeable.
Broadcasters are also nursing a ferocious cricket hangover. Between 2022 and 2023, Indian media houses committed well over $10bn to cricket rights alone, covering IPL, ICC events and BCCI domestic fixtures combined. After a binge of that scale, appetite for a football package that delivers a fraction of the ratings, in the dead of night, is close to zero.
The economics of football broadcasting make the maths even harder. Cricket, with its natural breaks every few overs, is an advertiser’s paradise. Football offers a 15-minute halftime and precious little else. Recovering a nine-figure rights fee from a single half-hour ad window is a stretch at the best of times. These are not the best of times: the Indian government’s tightening grip on real-money gaming and gambling advertising has vaporised a category that once underwrote the economics of big sporting events.
Nor is the World Cup an anomaly. Indian Super League valuations have cratered. English Premier League rights have softened across successive cycles. The cooling of football as a broadcast commodity in India is structural, not cyclical.
With the tournament opening on 11th June, Fifa is running out of road. It may yet blink and meet JioStar at $25m. Or it may go direct, streaming the entire tournament on its own platform, Fifa+, or cutting a digital deal with YouTube, and hoping that a generation of Indian football fans finds its way there without a broadcaster to guide them.
Either way, the beautiful game’s Indian chapter is looking decidedly ugly.
