IN FOR THE KILL

THE TRUE-CRIME SHOW MIGHT BE AN AMERICAN IMPORT BUT INDIAN FILMMAKERS ARE MAKING IT THEIR OWN

- Poulomi Das

In 2016, Ayesha Sood directed Trial by Error: The Aarushi Files, an investigative true-crime podcast that deconstructed the conflicting narratives in what was arguably the country's most polarising, shocking double murder. Six years later, in 2022, Sood is helming yet another true-crime series-the first instalment of Netflix's Indian Predator series. Titled The Butcher of Delhi, the three-episode mini-series revolves around a comparatively lesser-known case: that of Chandrakant Jha, a serial killer who killed and dismembered at least seven victims in West Delhi between 1998 and 2007.

Having premiered on July 20, the series is the latest entrant to a busy Indian true crime canon, a nascent genre that continues to be heavily influenced by the Netflix-engineered true crime explosion in America. Sood, however, doesn't think that Indian true-crime creators will just parrot the grammar and rhythm of western storytelling. "I think crime is very much rooted in the society it manifests in," she says, adding that India has "its own cycle of violence", which creates circumstances that remain specific to the socio-economic realities of the country.