The maker of International Emmy Award-winning show ‘Delhi Crime’, Richie Mehta is all set to direct a project based on Bhopal Gas Tragedy.
Excited to helm the series, the filmmaker said, “The authors have done such a precise and fascinating job of mapping out the human story which creates a thread all through this disaster and is 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, “I think 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.”
Ronnie Screwvala and Ramesh Krishnamoorthy’s Global One Studios are producing the project. Talking about the storytelling Screwvala says, “We’ve been looking at storytelling in very many different ways. I believe this for global audiences and not just Indian audiences overall more and more, especially because of OTT platforms, the mixture and the combination of great storytelling with a sense of realism and moving towards more inspired by true events based on a true story, actually has a lot more gravitas,”
Bhopal Gas Tragedy is an unfortunate incident which occurred on December 2-3 night in 1984. Poisonous methyl isocyanate gas leaked from Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh killing several thousand and adversely affecting the health of lakhs of others who continue to suffer ill-health till date.
It is considered among the world’s worst industrial disasters. The project 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’.
