How Dhurandhar depicted NSA Ajit Doval’s real-life IC 814 hostage encounter

Talking to Zee News in 2009, Ajit shared that the Indian authorities found themselves in a “vulnerable” position as they negotiated with the hijackers in Kandahar. The hijackers were aware that they were under pressure, and so, they kept pressing on their demands. Ajit said that he regretted how the situation was handled and shared that he actually went inside to address the passengers and saw their scared faces.

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R Madhavan as Ajay Sanyal in a still from Dhurandhar. The character is modelled on Indian NSA Ajit Doval.

“I went into the aircraft personally. I went in through the cockpit, and I addressed all the passengers, and I told all of them that you are free and the country of India, and its government is with you. I promised them that we would bring them back safely. When I asked them to say Bharat mata ki jai’ or ‘Jai hind’, they didn’t respond. Mujhe iss baat ka zaroor malaal tha ke ye log itne dare hue the (I regretted that they were so scared). The feeling of patriotism in them… it was natural, if someone had stayed a hostage for this long…” he said. Ajit implied that the hostages were scared and alluded that they might not be feeling as patriotic.

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He added that at the time, the Indian government should have taken action against Pakistan, and should have made stricter rules about captured terrorists, so no one, in the future, could demand the exchange of dreaded hostages while holding Indian citizens hostage. Indian government released Masood Azhar, Omar Sheikh and Mushtaq Ahmad Zargar in exchange for the IC814 hostages.

In the same interview, Ajit demanded that if a plane is hijacked or someone is kidnapped and demands are made for the release of a person being tried as a terrorist, they should directly be deemed guilty. “Though we released 3 out of the 36 names demanded by us we did not create any law that if a plane is hijacked and the hijackers seek the release of any person, then the person will be treated as a terrorist and the onus to prove will lie on them,” he had said in the interview.

As per the film, it is after this incident, and the 2001 Parliament attacks that Ajay Sanyal starts his mission ‘Dhurandhar’, of planting an Indian spy in the gangs of Lyari, Karachi.