Like to shine light on contemporary history: Vikramaditya Motwane on ‘Black Warrant’ series

Mumbai, Jan 4 (PTI) Filmmaker Vikramaditya Motwane says he adopted a “fly on the wall” approach to show the world that exist within the walls of Tihar jail in his upcoming series, “Black Warrant”.

The show is a dramatized adaptation of the book “Black Warrant: Confessions Of A Tihar Jailer” by Sunil Gupta, a former superintendent of Tihar, and journalist Sunetra Choudhury.

“I told my crew constantly that, ‘you are a fly on the wall’, or you are peeping into somebody’s room and feel like you are taking vicarious pleasure out of what is happening on screen. That’s been the operative mantra throughout,” Motwane told PTI in an interview.

Based on true events, the prison drama series revolves around Gupta, who with his two trusted fellow jailers (played by Paramvir Singh Cheema and Anurag Thakur), confront Tihar’s notorious inmates and the deep-rooted politics in the 1980s.

The series will debut on Netflix on January 10.

Motwane, also behind popular OTT series “Sacred Games” on Netflix and “Jubilee” on Prime Video, said he thrives on challenges.  

“I’m a student and lover of contemporary history and I like to shine a light on it in an interesting, entertaining and engaging way. That’s my approach to everything. I love filmmaking and I’m up for a challenge every time to try something (new),” said Motwane.

In order to show an authentic world of the prison, the filmmaker visited Tihar jail, and talked to Gupta to get insights into the day-to-day operations, including mundane details like how inmates pay for water or how gangs inside prison.

“There is something voyeuristic about looking at a jail. 00.01 per cent of the population of 99.99 per cent will never go inside the jail but there’s an intrigue about what happens inside, what are the people like? Are they all criminals? Are there any silver linings?” Motwane said, adding that American filmmaker David Fincher’s series “Mindhunter” served as a “minor inspiration”.

When he read the book, the equation between Gupta and serial killer Charles Sobhraj was so compelling that he decided to make Gupta, guiding the audience into the prison through his perspective.

“The lens was always about Sunil’s story and if he is the centre of the wheel, then what are the spokes that are going to go around, so him with his colleagues, family and the relationship with prisoners, that’s always been the focus of it.”

The world of prison is a closed one and Gupta said he wanted to shed a light on it through his book.

“People should know what is happening inside the jail… For prison managers, it is important they know what the conditions were back then in the 1980s and to take the curative steps on how they can resolve things, much was to be done.  

“Certain incidents mentioned in it are very emotional. There were certain things that I wanted to tell to the public like drugs were very prevalent from ’81 to ’84, there were exhortation rackets, inhuman treatment of the prisoners, I was aware of some incidents, which we incorporated in this book,” he said.

Choudhury said it was magical to see her words come to life on the screen.

“When you write a book… you always imagine what this world is like and it is up to the readers, they think about it. I think that visualisation, so for me to watch it, it was like, ‘Oh my god, we wrote something now it is flesh and blood’.”

Crime is an audience favourite genre, said Tanya Bami, director of Series at Netflix India. “Black Warrant” offers a fresh perspective in this space, she added.

“Indian prisons have never been explored, so a fly on the wall sort of view of everything from the gangs to jailors to the camaraderie between the jailors, it’s all exciting to see,” Bami said.

Sameer Nair, CEO Applause Entertainment, which has backed the series, said “Black Warrant” tells a human story set against a backdrop of violence without glorifying it.

“We were telling a human story, in the telling of that story violence is part of it. Oftentimes you tend to use the tropes and milk them till they are sort of overdone. When you watch the series, it’s a story about real people leading their lives; they just happen to be in jail.

“Since it’s Tihar jail, there will be some violence but that’s not the point of the story. The point of the story is about the period… It also tells you about India as we go along, it tells us how we were before. So, it is not designed to titillate or shock or anything like that, it’s a story.”