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Indian Predator: The Butcher of Delhi

Indian Predator: The Butcher of Delhi is an Indian Netflix true crime docuseries which premiered on 20 July 2022. Produced by VICE India and directed by Ayesha Sood, The Butcher of Delhi explores both the police investigation and the motives of Chandrakant Jha, a serial killer who, in 2006–2007, left three decapitated victims outside the Tihar Jail accompanied by mocking notes.

Indian Predator: The Butcher of Delhi
GenreTrue crime docuseries
Created byAyesha Sood
Directed byAyesha Sood
Creative directorsNandita Gupta
Tushar Jain
Arun Bhatia
StarringAltaf Hussain
Bunny Adhikari
Mukesh Pandey
Ankit Sharma
Manjit Singh
Sanjay Bansal
Theme music composerSalvage Audio Collective
Ayush Abuja
ComposerSalvage Audio Collective
Country of originIndia
Original languageHindi
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes3
Production
Executive producersSrusti Jain
Nandita Gupta
ProducersSanmira Kanwar
Ashwin Rai Shetty
Vatsala Aron
Niharika Kotwal
CinematographyLinesh Desai
EditorAnupama Chabukswar
Running time41– 44 minutes
Production companiesVice
India Today
Original release
NetworkNetflix
Release20 July 2022 (2022-07-20)

The first installment of a proposed Indian Predator series, The Butcher of Delhi received mixed reviews. Although some critics[who?] praised the mystery, pacing and departure from the whodunit format, others criticized its perceived cliché representation of Jha and overrepresentation of police accounts, lack of depth, poor flow and excessive exposition.

Premise

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Indian Predator: The Butcher of Delhi is a three-episode true crime docuseries. The first episode follows officer Sunder Singh's investigation and arrest of Chandrakant Jha, a serial killer who, in 2006–2007, left three decapitated victims outside the Tihar Jail in Delhi, India accompanied by mocking notes challenging the police to catch him before his next murder.[1] Later episodes explore Jha's life, backstory and motives, much of which was told by Jha during the police interview after his arrest. The Butcher of Delhi features interviews of people involved or close to the case, such as officers and journalists, interspersed with dramatizations of police exchanges, archival photographs and recreations.[2]

Cast

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Actors

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  • Altaf Hussain as Chandrakant Jha
    • Mukesh Pandy as Jha's voice
    • Jitendra Sharma as a young Jha
  • Manjit Singh as Sunder Singh
  • Sanjay Bansal as Pandit
  • Bunny Adhikari as Anil Mandal
  • Meenu as Mamta
  • Ankit Sharma as Dalip Kaushik
  • Joginder Sharma as Hoshiyar Singh
  • Pankaj Sharma as Narendra Kumar
  • Shivam as Jarnil Singh

Interviewees

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  • Surinder Singh Yadav, investigating officer of the case[3]
  • S.L. Vaya, a clinical forensic scientist[3] and psychologist[4]

Episodes

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11"Episode 1"Ayesha Sood20 July 2022
22"Episode 2"Ayesha Sood20 July 2022
33"Episode 3"Ayesha Sood20 July 2022

Production

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Development

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"[Indian Predator] was a collaboration between Vice and Netflix, it was an umbrella series. They had come up with a pool of stories and one of them was this. It wasn’t picked because it was gruesome or grotesque, it was picked because the nature of the crime was audacious and something so audacious, gruesome, or brutal was not really heard or talked about. The fact that it was unseen was one of the key reasons."

Ayesha Sood, interviewed by News18[5]

The Indian Predator series was first announced in March 2021 in a press release by Netflix and Vice Studios, which also reported three additional directors for later installments alongside Ayesha Sood: Umesh Kulkarni, Ashwin Shetty and Dheeraj Jindal.[6][7] The Butcher of Delhi is the first of this series, which will also follow other Indian true crime cases.[8] Indian Predator was among over forty Indian productions that Netflix India announced that year, and follows several previous Indian true crime series for Netflix such as House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths (2021).[6][9] In an interview for the Royal Television Society, Vice Studios' president Kate Ward characterized such documentaries as a "big opportunity" for Vice.[7]

Director Ayesha Sood[10] stated that, around May 2020, Vice approached her to direct Indian Predator and presented her with potential cases to adapt.[11] She chose the case of Chandrakant Jha as she found it "very intriguing"[11] and was surprised that she did not know of it despite living in Delhi.[2] She later elaborated that she picked it because it was "something so audacious, gruesome, or brutal [that it was not] really heard or talked about".[5]

Research and filming

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The development team, led by Nandita Gupta,[12] went through a long phase of research and interviews, guided by Vice and Netflix's legal team.[5] Sood said that it "led [her] to discover a lot about human psychology and the justice system".[13] The research team gradually contacted all persons involved with Jha or the case known from the case files.[12] During interviews, Sood found it "tough" to discern factual information from interviewees and was the production team were careful to cut various material.[2] In an interview for News18, she noted that the interviewees were "very cooperative"[5] and the Delhi Police shared various files and materials with them.[11] She told Cinema Express that some sources backed out of being recorded "at the last moment",[11] but many villagers would instead give her details in person.[5] Sood attempted to interview Jha, but could speak only to his lawyer as cameras are unable to be brought into Tihar Jail.[2] The team also visited Jha's residence in Delhi, but were not allowed to shoot there by the landlord; this experience was described by Sood as "haunting".[12]

The Butcher of Delhi features dramatizations of police exchanges and investigations with Jha that, according to Sood, were all completely based on archival material.[2] Interspersed in between the interviews are both archival photographs of crime scenes and recreations and reenactments of the events being described.[3]

Marketing

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The producers refrained in revealing the actual case The Butcher of Delhi is based on prior to its release.[13] The trailer for the series was released on 28 June 2022 on Netflix India's official YouTube channel[8] and now has over three million views.[9] The channel also released other short teasers prior to the release date.[citation needed]

Release

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The three episodes of Indian Predator: The Butcher of Delhi premiered on Netflix on 20 July 2022.[13]

Reception

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The miniseries received mixed reviews. Abhimanyu Mathur of Hindustan Times praised The Butcher of Delhi and compared it above other Netflix Indian true crime series, noting that it builds mystery around Jha's motives and actions instead of following a typical whodunit format.[14] Joel Keller of Decider noted that "The show gets to the point... [it] doesn’t pad its runtime with off-topic examinations of the time period or unnecessary biographical sketches".[15] M.N. Miller of Ready Steady Cut praised Sood's direction and how The Butcher of Delhi "gets into the head of the killer",[16] as did Bhavya Sadhwani of India Times, who noted the impartial narration.[17]

Veronica Loop of Martin Cid Magazine praised its style and pacing, saying The Butcher of Delhi was "hefty, truculent, and provocative".[18] Ameen of Leisurebyte drew attention to how it "puts forward the reality of the lower strata of the society who are so beaten down by the people above them and how even justice is not on their side in most cases, even neglects them".[19]

In contrast, Bhuvanesh Chandar of The Hindu found the show to be cliché, describing its exploration of both the events and Jha's motives and life as "shallow and unconvincing". Chandar concludes that The Butcher of Delhi "clearly stays away from Chandrakant's accusations of police brutality" and that "[ultimately] milking the shock value of a criminal case only gets you so far".[20] Tanvi Trehan of ThePrint echoed Chandar's complaints, saying that the series "fails to question the police", but praised Singh's recount.[4] Nandini Ramnath of Scroll.in also reflected Trehan's sentiments,[21] and Pratikshya Mishra of The Quint felt that The Butcher of Delhi was "derailed by its [sensationalist] approach", somewhat addressing the need for police reform but "immediately countering it".[22]

Although ultimately recommending The Butcher of Delhi, praising it as "intriguing" and depicting a "brutality and disrespect of life that is very hard to relate to", Karina Adelgaard of Heaven in Horror said that the first episode was "messy" and questioned the reliability of the police accounts.[23] Poulomi Das of Firstpost said that the show followed the same "frustrating template" as Netflix's other Indian true crime series—"[building] itself around a gruesome, headline-grabbing case [then proceeding] to use the police investigation to paint a selective portrait of the societal inequalities that breeds criminals... [In] their attempt to cover multiple vantage points of one single crime, these documentaries overcrowd their own narratives, often rushing through points instead of making any." Das also criticized the pacing, "unimaginative" filmmaking and exposition. He concludes "that the series is content with endorsing the official version of events couldn’t be any more obvious. It’s exactly why Indian Predator: The Butcher of Delhi lacks the thrills."[24]

Many critics compared it both favorably and unfavorably to House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths (2021), either as being similar to it or not being able to meet its standards.[24][21]

Franchise

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Indian Predator: The Butcher of Delhi is the first of a proposed Indian Predator series which follows other Indian true crime cases on the same title. It was followed by Indian Predator: The Diary of a Serial Killer and Indian Predator: Murder in a Courtroom.[25] Later the series was revived for another instalment called Indian Predator: Beast of Bangalore.

References

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  1. ^ Sachdeva, Maanya (26 July 2022). "Butcher of Delhi: The chilling story of an Indian serial killer in Netflix's new true-crime series". The Independent. Retrieved 7 August 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d e Mehrotra, Suchin (23 July 2022). "Indian Predator The Butcher of Delhi director Ayesha Sood on the notorious CC Killer: 'He knows how to play the system'". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  3. ^ a b c Tikader, Agrima (22 July 2022). "Indian Predator: The Butcher of Delhi: What to expect from this true crime Netflix spine-chiller". The Telegraph. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  4. ^ a b Trehan, Tanvi (23 July 2022). "Cliched, exaggerated—Netflix's serial killer in 'Indian Predator' is only an archetype". ThePrint. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  5. ^ a b c d e Banerjee, Ranjini (23 July 2022). "Indian Predator Director Ayesha Sood on Making Netflix Docu-series: 'Delhi Police Was Very Cooperative'". News18. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  6. ^ a b HT Entertainment Desk (3 March 2021). "Netflix India 2021 slate announced: From Fabulous Lives season 2 and Kapil Sharma to Abbas-Mustan's next, see full list". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 23 July 2022. Director: Ayesha Sood, Umesh Kulkarni, Ashwin Shetty, Dheeraj Jindal
  7. ^ a b Mehtab, Omar (8 April 2021). "Vice Studios: At the cutting edge". Royal Television Society. Retrieved 19 July 2022. Vice Studios recently announced that it was making a true-crime series, Indian Predator, for Netflix in India, "a super-premium" documentary with the potential to become a global suc- cess, it believes, that attempts to get into the minds of serial killers.
  8. ^ a b Mahorta, Rahul (28 June 2022). "'Indian Predator: The Butcher of Delhi' Trailer Teases Netflix's Chilling True Crime Series". Collider. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
  9. ^ a b Meek, Andy (19 July 2022). "Don't miss this twisted new Netflix docuseries that tracks a serial killer from India". Boy Genius Report. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  10. ^ IANS (19 July 2022). "Ayesha Sood opens up on 'Indian Predator: The Butcher of Delhi'". The Statesman. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  11. ^ a b c d Bhardwaj, Kartik (20 July 2022). "Sometimes sources backed out at the last minute: Ayesha Sood on making Netflix's Indian Predator". Cinema Express (The New Indian Express). Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  12. ^ a b c Khan, Arman (23 July 2022). "The 'Butcher of Delhi' Was One of the Most Savage Serial Killers in History. A New Netflix Series Dives Into His Twisted Mind". Vice. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  13. ^ a b c Entertainment Desk (29 June 2022). "Indian Predator The Butcher of Delhi: A chilling docu-series on serial killer who terrorised India's capital". The Indian Express. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
  14. ^ Mathur, Abhimanyu (20 July 2022). "Indian Predator The Butcher of Delhi review: Netflix's spine-chilling serial killer show with a lesson in class divide". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
  15. ^ Keller, Joel (20 July 2022). "Stream It Or Skip It: 'Indian Predator: The Butcher Of Delhi' On Netflix, A Docuseries About A Serial Killer Taunting Delhi Law Enforcement With Dismembered Bodies". Decider. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
  16. ^ Miller, M.N. (21 July 2022). "Indian Predator: The Butcher of Delhi review – a brutal and fascinating watch". Ready Steady Cut. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
  17. ^ Sadhwani, Bhavya (23 July 2022). "Just Like Burari Series, Indian Predator: The Butcher Of Delhi Will Make You Feel Uncomfortable". India Times. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  18. ^ Loop, Veronica (20 July 2022). "Indian Predator: The Butcher of Delhi – Series Review – On Netflix". Martin Cid Magazine. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  19. ^ Ameen (20 July 2022). "Indian Predator The Butcher of Delhi Review: Story of an Unnoticed Serial Killer". Leisurebyte. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  20. ^ Chandar, Bhuvanesh (22 July 2022). "'Indian Predator: The Butcher of Delhi' review: Despite the potent material, only a shallow exploration persists". The Hindu. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  21. ^ a b Ramnath, Nandini (20 July 2022). "'Indian Predator: The Butcher of Delhi' review: A sensationalised recreation of a gruesome crime". Scroll.in. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  22. ^ Pratikshya, Mishra (20 July 2022). "Review: 'Indian Predator: The Butcher of Delhi' is Derailed by Its Approach". The Quint. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  23. ^ Adelgaard, Karina "ScreamQueen" (20 July 2022). "Indian Predator: The Butcher of Delhi – Netflix Review". Heaven of Horror. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  24. ^ a b Das, Poulomi (20 July 2022). "Indian Predator: The Butcher of Delhi: Frustrating Netflix true crime series retells a chilling case without any purpose". Firstpost. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
  25. ^ Experience Real Content | Indian Matchmaking, Social Currency & More | Netflix India, retrieved 9 August 2022
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