Back in 2013, I had heard whispers of Indrani Mukerjea. At the time, I was in Thailand, gearing up to go to the U.S. for college. Random aunties and uncles were speaking about this one media icon in India who had allegedly murdered her sister. Some said, “No no, it was her daughter.”
Confused, I paid attention but didn’t quite know what to make of the wildly opposing stories and theories.
Over a decade later, I finally understood the theories swirling around when I watched the Netflix documentary “The Indrani Mukerjea Story: Buried Truth.”
Well, kind of.
The documentary, directed by the award-winning husband-wife duo, Uraaz Bahl and Shaana Levy, was paced so well that it kept me on the edge of my seat. That sounds a bit hyperbolic, but the more you learn about Indrani’s case on TV, the more you’ll understand.
Read Related: [‘Delhi Crime’ Review: Netflix’s Take on the Nirbhaya Case is Cop-Centric but Gut-Wrenchingly Effective]
Indrani and her husband, Peter Mukerjea, were media tycoons in India in the early 2000s. In 2015, Indrani was arrested by Mumbai Police for allegedly killing Sheena Bora, the woman who was first believed to be her sister, but (spoiler alert!) who turned out to be her daughter. This revelation is just one of the many twists that are unfolded through the course of the show.
I was lucky to speak with Bahl and Levy, who called in from Spain. This is the couple’s fourth project together and I could tell their strong partnership from their respective passions and with the way they completed each other’s sentences. It sounds cliché, I know, but they were truly delightful. Speaking to them made it clear to me why the subjects of the documentary — from Mikhail to Vidhi — were so honest and vulnerable on screen.
The interview below has been edited for length, brevity and clarity.
What compelled you to explore Indrani Mukerjea for your project?
Bahl: It was such a big story in India. It consumed the headlines in 2017. Every conversation we had would be based on the story.
Levy: It had consumed our lives in Mumbai — from the headline on TV to our dinner conversations — but it was just stranger than fiction! You were watching it and you couldn’t believe what you were watching on the news. It was unfolding in our city where we were living. We knew people who knew people who knew Indrani and Peter. You couldn’t escape the story. It was fascinating. The whole true crime genre in 2015 was erupting. It was so captivating and because they were media bands, Indrani and Peter, and they were so prominent. The whole story became that more prominent.
Bahl: We actually never thought we would explore Indrani herself. When we started this project, she was in jail…so we never thought we would get to interview her. It was very serendipitous that the project got delayed because of COVID, [and] then she got released on bail. We had to pivot from doing this project without her, to having her.
Levy: We love true crime. When a story like this came into the news, we thought this was the story that had to be told. We believed it had a global appeal.
The story ricocheted to Bangkok, where I was at the time. We had all heard about it. How did it feel to realize you could speak with Indrani for the project?
Bahl: Obviously, it is very exciting when you’ve been following the case that long and then get the opportunity to speak with the accused. It’s very fortunate. We couldn’t have planned for it.
When you see her on the screen, you sit up immediately. Why did you want certain reveals to play out the way they did in the series? I have my guesses…was it that you wanted the audience to experience it the way we did 10 years ago; the way things evolved and progressed? You get so invested.
Levy: That’s spot on. Because we consumed the news as it happened 10 years ago, we definitely wanted audience members who were either too young at the time or didn’t know the case or were from a different country to get those gasp moments, and to get those reveals as it unfolded. We also wanted to set up the story and the case the way the media had portrayed it, the way we knew it before we got to hear from Indrani. We felt it was an important stepping stone for audience members to know the basics before we got different POVs.
Bahl: It was a choice to not bring her at the beginning. It gives us time to set up the context of the story and the way the police had set up the case. And then have Indrani share her side of the story. We were doing more of what I would call the deep dive journalism.
Levy: And also be able to play out how her two children were alive, view the case and Sheena, and be able to look at the family drama.
Bahl: It was always keeping the overall story in mind. We didn’t want it to drag; we wanted to keep it thriller-esque, to make sure that at no point have things move too slowly. That way the overall arc of the story was exciting and engrossing.
The show never feels boring. When you watch it on screen, you get to know the characters, or people rather, so close and personal — not fall into the trap of calling actual people with actual lives as characters. What was an emotional scene that you had to shoot that was the most surprising?
Bahl: Scene 1, shot 1, day 1, was Mikhail, and it was the first time he broke down. We see him in two different locations and shot him two times. The first time is when he doesn’t have a beard and is very vulnerable and emotional, he talks about the loss of his sister and I have to say, a bunch of the crew were in tears. We had to stop because someone was crying so loud, the hair and makeup person was in proper tears. As a documentary filmmaker, you’re looking for emotions in your character and subjects
Levy: …but also see that level of vulnerability and sincerity and trauma — we feel very privileged to have been able to capture that.
I can’t believe that was your first take!
Bahl: It was 20 minutes in and he just broke down. He lived in Kohati and there was media attention; I think it was too much for him to handle. Years later there isn’t as much scrutiny. I think he got the chance to formulate his thoughts and allowed himself to feel the emotions and his sister. I think when the case broke it was such a state of shock.
It’s sensory overload having everyone follow you. Everything you say could be misconstrued. I’d love to hear how you established the rapport with the family, with Mikhail, to get them to trust you.
Bahl: With Mikhail, we would have conversations before. The difference with Mikhail and especially Indrani — these are media veterans and they are used to it. Mikhail is very different. He had a lot of PTSD from when the media literally chased him down the streets. He would tell us stories about people climbing up ladders to get shots through the window. His grandparents were really old and dying. It was such a shock right when the case broke. The intense media attention for the young boy who grew up in a small town was not prepared. Vidhi grew up in that world with her parents so she was kind of used to it and was much more comfortable on screen.
Levy: Mikhail instantly got a sense that we weren’t chasing him down. This was professional. There was a calmness and openness, the types of questions we were asking, we were really interested in hearing his story.
Bahl: This is not hit-and-run journalism. We told him we would interview him two or three times over the course of the year.
Levy: I think people realize quite quickly that when you’re dealing with them in a professional capacity that they just feel more comfortable than when they know.
Bahl: Seven years had gone by and he had time to process it. He could tell his story and he had rationalized or made sense of it. Had we interviewed him two months into the case, it would have been different.
View this post on Instagram
How is your relationship with him and also Vidhi now off-screen, since the show’s release?
Levy: Honestly, we’ve had a very professional relationship with everyone.
Bahl: I wouldn’t call it a relationship. They were all very professional, all of them were very polite and very punctual.
Levy: They were all very polite and engaging. Great to be around on set. I was very impressed by how Vidhi conducted herself and how open and vulnerable she was. Whatever questions we threw at them, they answered with grace, and considering how much trauma these kids have gone through, I give them a lot of respect for answering all our questions to the best of their abilities.
You see how graceful they are on screen and retelling their story. It’s their lives that they are sharing. I’m curious to hear how it was working with Indrani.
Bahl: She’s a real media professional. She understands the business. One thing was very funny, though, when she went to jail there was no Netflix. When we met her for the first time, we were explaining what Netflix was and she had no idea what it was. Although she was a media professional with the traditional cable satellite and all that.
Levy: I have to say that she was just so professional. How she came on set, prepared and on time — she didn’t come and say you can’t say this or that. We threw so many questions at her and she took them. You can tell that this woman has been through a lot.
Read Related: [Why the Death of Indian-American Srinivas Kuchibhotla is a Hate Crime and Nothing Less]
Bahl: Everybody comes in with a narrative that they want to get out there and it’s our job as investigative journalists to chip away at it and to ask difficult questions and try to make sense of it as much as possible.
How do you feel about the reception the project has received? How did the people you work with respond to the show?
Levy: We were absolutely blown away, and humbled, by the reception it received. The fact that it was ‘global number 7’ was a dream. It reinforced the fact that our initial instinct was correct. Even though this is a story that stems from India and is born in India. It has a human appeal. It is a family story. It is for anyone who loves true crime and anyone who loves a deep dive into incredible character analysis. The fact that there are still questions that remained unanswered means people will hopefully follow this case and journey.
Bahl: As directors, any director will say that you’re only as good as your team. We were so lucky to have a team that was so passionate. Every person working in every department was so invested. There was one point when we were interviewing Indrani, we had the costume person say “ask her this” and the sound guy and the DP jump in with questions, “ask her that.” Everyone was fully involved and invested. Our job as directors is to empower every member of our team. We will not ridicule any suggestion that they make. It was a wonderful team in India, LA. We had editors in LA, New York, Estonia, Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Delhi.
When India would go to sleep, Europe would wake up, then US, then Mexico. It was incredible. Everyone had their theories, we would get different perspectives from different backgrounds and ages.
Levy: I think having this amazing global team helped translate this into a global success as well. We edited and shot it for everyone in our team to understand and for everyone globally to really understand.
“The Indrani Mukerjea Story: Buried Truth” premiered February 29, 2024, on Netflix.
