Critically-acclaimed
filmmaker
Richie
Mehta
has
come
on
board
as
the
writer,
director
and
showrunner
for
a
series
on
the
1984
Bhopal
gas
tragedy.
To
be
produced
by
producer
Ronnie
Screwvala's
RSVP
and
Ramesh
Krishnamoorthy’s
Global
One
Studios,
the
series
is
based
on
Dominique
Lapierre
and
Javier
Moro's
1997
book,
"Five
Past
Midnight
in
Bhopal:
The
Epic
Story
of
the
World’s
Deadliest
Industrial
Disaster".
Richie
Mehta
is
best
known
for
creating
and
directing
Netflix's
smash
hit
crime
drama
series
Delhi
Crime.
Last
year,
the
show
bagged
the
best
drama
series
award
at
the
48th
International
Emmy
Awards.
Mehta
said
his
attempt
with
the
new
series
is
to
bring
to
screen
the
event
in
an
"impartial"
manner
for
the
audience,
who
may
have
forgotten
the
tragedy,
which
killed
over
15,000
people
and
lakhs
affected.
"The
fact
that
it
happened
in
the
1980s,
it
is
starting
to
evaporate
from
the
collective
consciousness
of
young
people.
Many
people
don't
even
know
about
it
or
they
hear
rumours
of
it
in
India
and
certainly
internationally.
"And
so
I
feel
like
it's
really
important
to
get
it
out
there
in
an
impartial
and
extremely
well-researched
manner,
which
the
authors
have
done," Richie
Mehta
said
in
a
statement.
Writer
and
Richie's
brother
Shaun
Mehta,
who
wrote
the
director's
debut
film
Amal,
is
co-writing
the
series.
Richie
Mehta
lauded
the
authors
for
doing
a
"precise
and
fascinating"
job
of
mapping
out
the
human
story,
told
in
an
impartial
manner.
"Which
is
very
important
to
me
as
a
storyteller
to
step
back
and
allow
the
viewer
to
fill
in
that
judgment,
and
in
the
case
of
something
like
this
very
harsh
judgment,
of
course,"
he
added.
The
series,
which
is
likely
to
consist
of
six
to
eight
one-hour
episodes,
will
commence
production
in
early
2022.
While
no
broadcasting
partner
has
yet
come
on
board,
Screwvala
said
the
team
wants
to
develop
the
series
independently.
"We're
quite
happy
that
we
want
to
develop
this
completely
on
our
own,
go
with
our
own
conviction
and
go
to
somebody
who
buys
into
our
vision
rather
than
being
a
bit
of
a
mishmash
of
everyone.
Because
the
minute
you
get
into
development
funding
then
it
becomes
just
too
many
people
in
the
room,"
he
said.