New Delhi: Director Vikramaditya Motwane wants viewers to be uncomfortable. He wants people to talk about capital punishment. And he achieves this with his newest offering, the seven-episode Black Warrant on Netflix. It’s an unflinching look at Tihar Jail in the 1980s.
“The series was an opportunity to create a definitive Indian prison show. And we need to go deep into the society of the jail,” said Motwane on the prison drama based on Sunil Gupta and Sunetra Choudhury’s 2019 book, Black Warrant: Confessions of a Tihar Jailer.
The series explores the infamous jail, home to some of the most notorious criminals, through the eyes of Sunil Gupta (Zahan Kapoor), a Tihar Jail superintendent.
Black Warrant challenges the necessity of capital punishment and makes the audience think about “alternative approaches” to brutal crimes. And he does this through two of the most infamous criminals—Ranga and Billa—who were found guilty of kidnapping and subsequently murdering siblings Geeta and Sanjay in New Delhi.
They were hanged in 1982. In Black Warrant, an episode is dedicated to the Ranga-Billa case and Gupta is the vehicle of doubt.
“The truth of the incident isn’t under question. But is there a slightest seed of doubt that due process was not followed? Everything is grey; nothing is black and white,” said Motwane. Even as he performs his duty as superintendent, he questions whether the death sentence was the ‘right way’ to deliver justice.
Motwane admitted that the execution scene of Billa and Ranga made him “nervous.”
“I wanted to approach these scenes carefully and let the audience feel the ambiguity,” he said. “It (the execution scene) lands in that morally ambiguous grey area where you want the audience to feel confused and conflicted… somewhat sympathetic for both sides.”
He went on to describe how the Ranga execution moment teetered on the edge of dark comedy.
“When Ranga tries to stop his execution by holding his breath, the scene almost slips into black comedy. Many people who watched it told me they wanted to laugh but couldn’t because of the situation.”
Also read: A Delhi doctor is the ‘Tihar specialist’. Extracts phones, drugs & blades from inmates’ bodies
The extraordinary life
It was journalist Josy Joseph of Confluence Media who introduced the book Black Warrant to Motwane, and it instantly captured his interest. For the filmmaker, it offered a fascinating glimpse into 1980s India.
Four key elements stood out to him: How Sunil Gupta landed his job with the help of serial killer Charles Sobhraj, the execution of Ranga and Billa, the prison escape of around 170 students arrested for protesting against the Jawaharlal Nehru University vice-chancellor, and a compelling protagonist whom Motwane describes as “a very unlikely hero.”
“We were determined to preserve the book’s essence—the humanness within the crime world,” Black Warrant co-creator Satyanshu Singh said. “It was equally important to portray the struggles of jailors and do justice to their stories.”
Black Warrant: Confessions of a Tihar Jailer covers 35 years of Gupta’s work as a jailer at Tihar. But the Netflix show covers just 1981-1984.
Motwane revealed that he wanted to explore and adapt the whole book, but Singh, his co-creator who also wrote the screenplay for Black Warrant, was adamant about taking it slow and focusing on detail.
“We wanted to observe the day-to-day life of the jailers. What they do is extraordinary. Their ordinary life is extraordinary to watch,” Singh told ThePrint.
Black Warrant authors Sunil Gupta and Sunetra Choudhury, Motwane recalled, lauded their efforts, with Choudhury telling Motwane that the series was “better than the book.”
Casting masterstroke
The casting of Black Warrant has received special mentions from critics. They have lauded Zahan Kapoor’s portrayal of a “determined police officer who stands apart from the system”.
“As Sunil Gupta, he (Zahan Kapoor) brings forth his reluctance, vulnerability, innocence, and naivety. He does this in the manner of a man with whom he resembles so much – his grandfather, Shashi Kapoor…His performance makes the show believable from the very first frame,” a review in The Hindustan Times read.
Film critic Saibal Chatterjee has praised Kapoor’s co-stars Rahul Bhat, Paramvir Cheema and Anurag Thakur, who also play jailers, for doing “a perfect job of embodying sharp, distinct counterpoints.”
But Motwane mentioned that one character was particularly challenging to cast: Charles Sobhraj.
“There was a lot of uncertainty,” the filmmaker said. “We thought about whether to go with someone famous, non-famous, someone outside the country… but Mukesh Chabbra took the right call.”
The role of Charles Sobhraj was eventually played by Jubilee star Sidhant Gupta.
Elaborating on the casting, Motwane highlighted how at times, in the storyline, they had to merge four-five characters into one. It’s something that didn’t go down well with journalist Barkha Dutt. Her mother Prabha Dutt was among the five journalists who interviewed Billa; Ranga had refused to give one.
In an Instagram post, she expressed disappointment at how her mother’s role was “erased /presented as a fictional character in the Black Warrant OTT series.”
Rajshri Deshpande plays journalist Pratibha Sen – likely modeled on Prabha Dutt – who petitions the Supreme Court to interview child killers Billa and Ranga before their hanging in the series.
“We will try better next time,” said Motwane, reacting to Barkha Dutt’s comment.
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)