‘Trial By Fire’: Rajshri Deshpande, Abhay Deol on portraying the trauma of real-life parents in Netflix series

The actors talk about playing Neelam and Shekhar Krishnamoorthy, who lost their kids in the 1997 Uphaar Cinema fire tragedy

On 13 June 1997, Neelam and Shekhar Krishnamoorthy’s children, Unnati (17) and Ujjawal (13), were excited to go watch the Hinsi film Border starring Sunny Deol. Their mother had booked them balcony seats at Uphaar Cinema in Green Park, Delhi. They kissed her goodbye and promised to return by 7:30 pm.

They never came back home.

A fire that day at the cinema consumed 59 lives, including Unnati and Ujjawal’s, and injured over 150 people. Neelam and Shekhar wanted to hold those responsible for the tragedy; 26 years later, their battle for justice is still on. 

Netflix’s upcoming series Trial By Fire is based on the bestselling book, Trial By Fire: The Tragic Tale of the Uphaar Fire Tragedy by Neelam and Shekhar. Starring Rajshri Deshpande and Abhay Deol as Neelam and Shekhar, the show also stars Rajesh Tailang, Anupam Kher, Ratna Pathak and others in the cast. The series, dropping on January 13, is showrun by Prashant Nair, who has adapted the book to screen with Kevin Luperchio and has directed the series with Randeep Jha.

The Hindu caught up with Abhay, Rajshri, and Rajesh ahead of the series premiere. The lead actors talk about the challenges of portraying real-life people who have been fighting for justice, while dealing with trauma for the last 26 years.

Excerpts from the interview:

Q / Abhay, you have said that playing Shekhar Krishnamoorthy was your most challenging role; what made it so?