Vijay Varma, who will next be seen in the role of a pilot in Anubhav Sinha’s upcoming hostage-drama series IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack, recently spoke about the challenges he faced while shooting for the show. The Darlings actor said that it was difficult for him to perform in isolation, with nothing but green screens and minimal physical cues to guide him.

"I was locked in a six-foot-by-six feet space, and there was all green screen around me, and my co-actors were the seat belt, my landing gear, my tools, and my co-pilot, flight assistant, and flight engineer,” said Vijay. “I would barely get to see Anubhav sir. He would just show up in front of me to tell me to do what I was supposed to do, and then disappear."

“And then I am looking at the green screen and asking, Where am I? Is it Amritsar or Lahore? And they would say that now you are in Kathmandu, now in Delhi, and now you have reached Kandahar. It was an experience for me. I had to use every bit of my imagination to put myself on a flight at 30 thousand feet and imagine what it would be like,” he added.

The trailer of IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack was recently released. The show is based on the 1999 hijack of Indian Airlines Flight 814, which was taken over by militants for seven days as soon as it took off from Kathmandu, Nepal. It was on its way to Delhi but on the behest of the militants, was re-routed to several locations, including Amritsar, Lahore, Dubai, and was finally landed in Afghanistan’s Kandahar, which was under Taliban rule.

Apart from Vijay, the limited series has an ensemble cast of Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapur, Kumud Mishra, Manoj Pahwa, Dia Mirza and Patralekhaa, among others. The show will start streaming on Netflix from August 29.