Series on Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination in works; Nagesh Kukunoor to direct

A series detailing the assassination of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi is under development with filmmaker Nagesh Kukunoor attached as director.

Applause Entertainment has greenlit Trail of an Assassin, which is based on former journalist Anirudhya Mitra’s book ‘ Ninety Days: The True Story of the Hunt for Rajiv Gandhi’s Assassin’.

The forthcoming crime procedural series will be a blow-by-blow account of how the CBI’s Special Investigation Team cracked the assassination plot, identified the assassins and chased the mastermind, to his final hideout.

Nagesh Kukunoor, who previously created City of Dreams for Applause Entertainment, said he is looking forward to working on the show. “I look forward to taking on this gritty and thrilling piece of storytelling, adapted from ‘Ninety Days: The True Story of the Hunt for Rajiv Gandhi’s Assassin’.

“It has always been an enriching and creatively satisfying experience collaborating with Applause Entertainment and excited to see how this one unfolds,” the two-time National Award winner said in a statement.

Sameer Nair, the CEO of Applause Entertainment, said the studio is pleased to once again collaborate with Kukunoor to bring this gut-wrenching story to a contemporary audience. “Driven and guided by our values of being ambitious, audacious and disruptive, we believe the adaptation of Anirudhya Mitra’s book certainly makes for a compelling story to tell. Most are aware of this incident through the medium of news and will now get a dramatized insider view of the largest manhunt in Indian history,” said Sameer.

With ‘ Ninety Days: The True Story of the Hunt for Rajiv Gandhi’s Assassin’, Anirudhya said he has tried to provide “the most definitive account of the biggest manhunt launched in India”.

“The audio-visual format enables the story’s numerous facets and layers to be presented in a more nuanced and engrossing manner. With Applause Entertainment’s reputation for passionate storytelling and Nagesh Kukunoor’s directorial expertise, I’m confident that an exciting series lies ahead of us,” the author further said.

Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on the night of May 21, 1991, at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu by a woman suicide bomber at a poll rally.