Vikramaditya Motwane on the making of Black Warrant: ‘We have not done this kind of prison drama in India before’

Motwane was drawn to Gupta’s behind-the-wall accounts of Tihar Jail since there was “something fascinating and voyeuristic” about it. “All the incidents and characters mentioned in the book are real. That provided the potential for it to be adapted as a drama series. Since we have not done this kind of prison drama in India before, working on this series was exciting,” says Motwane, who shares the creator and showrunner credit with Satyanshu Singh.

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After delivering a successful period drama Jubilee (2023, Prime Video) and an exploration of contemporary behaviour through a screenlife thriller CTRL (2024, Netflix), Motwane helms Black Warrant that takes an incisive look at India in the ’70s and and the ’80s through certain keys incidents that took place in Tihar Jail. The book and the series borrow their title from the term ‘black warrant’, that refers to a court’s order authorising a jail officer to carry out the execution of a convicted prisoner.

Known to have an abiding interest in history, Motwane says, Gupta’s book seemed quite relevant to him given the fact that it captures a crucial aspect of India. “I was born in the ’70s. While growing up in the ’80s, I had heard about Charles Sobhraj (a French serial killer and conman active in South Asia the ’70s and ’80s), the execution of Ranga-Billa and several other incidents that the series touches upon,” he says. The second episode of the series follows the tension within the jail over the the hanging of Ranga (Kuljeet Singh) and Billa (Jasbir Singh) convicted in the kidnapping and subsequent murder of siblings Geeta and Sanjay Chopra.

The book is episodic and highlights certain incidents that took place inside the jail, including how nearly 200 students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) staged a major jailbreak. “Though the book covers nearly 35 years of Sunil’s life at Tihar, it is much shorter in volume. For the series, we had to expand it and add details. We also added new characters. All the incidents, however, are real,” says Motwane. Working on the script also involved extensive fact-checking and several rounds of conversations with Gupta. “Our team called him every second day to verify details. We also visited the jail,” he adds.

When the audience meets young Gupta in the show, he comes across as an unheroic hero. While building his role, says Motwane, they had to keep multiple factors in mind. “The protagonist’s character is based on what’s written in the book, how Sunil is in real life as well as Zahan’s personality and how he conducts himself. That apart, we had to consider what we needed from a dramatic perspective. To tell a series, you can’t have a hero in the very first episode. The character grows to become a hero,” says Motwane. He believes that the series remains true to how Gupta must have felt when he started working at the jail. “We wanted his character to feel like a fish out of water,” says the director, who was also involved in the making of Sacred Games (2018) and Sacred Games 2 (2019).

During his tenure at Tihar Jail, Gupta has held different positions. “I was inducted as assistant superintendent of police and then promoted to the superintendent of police rank. Subsequently, I changed my job profile and was promoted to the post of legal advisor, which was an IG (inspector-general of police) rank post,” says Gupta. He even handled applications from law students and scholars who wanted to study the psychology and condition of the inmates there. When the Central government stopped entertaining such applications, Gupta thought he should write about the prisoners in a book. He also wanted to document how the prison used to be run and its affairs were dealt with. “There are still many things that could not be incorporated into one book. I’m planning to write another soon,” the former jailer says.