The Netflix series IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack has been well received by the audience. Apart from its script, the actors are also being praised for their acting. Actor Rajiv Thakur, who played a hijacker in the series based on the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane flying from Kathmandu to New Delhi in 1999, recently revealed how actor Vijay Verma ensured that his acting looked authentic. Verma played the role of the pilot.

In real life, the hijackers had put their guns in Captain Devi Sharan’s neck, which caused him to bleed. This also left a permanent scar on his neck. Verma wanted to replicate the pilot’s suffering in the Netflix show.

Rajiv Thakur told Bollywood Now, “I was confident that I could point the gun at his neck. Otherwise, why would I do that when I meet a star for the first time? I could have gently placed the gun on his neck, but Vijay said, ‘Nahi kare, mujhe dikhaana hai screen par.'”

Though on-screen foes, Verma and Thakur shared a great camaraderie when they were not in front of the camera. In fact, they used to have so much fun on the sets of Anubhav Sinha’s show that they would even get scolded at times.

“Vijay and I used to joke as soon as we said ‘cut’. Like we used to say ‘How will Dara Singh speak the same dialogue?’ We used to get scolded. ‘Get serious about your work,'” Thakur said. He added, “I think it was our chemistry that was clearly visible on screen.”

Earlier, during a roundtable discussion on Netflix’s YouTube channel, Anubhav Sinha had revealed that the pilot of the hijacked plane, played by Vijay Verma in the series, had suffered a permanent scar on his neck.

“He still has a mark on his neck where the kidnappers held the gun to him. The gun rubbed against his skin for so long that a mark was left and that mark is still there,” Sinha said.

The Netflix show IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack also stars Naseeruddin Shah, Manoj Pahwa, Pankaj Kapur and many others.