After penning the National Award-winning screenplay for the Irffan-starrer Talvar, which won critical and commercial acclaim for its clinical but edgy account of the Aarushi-Hemraj double murder investigation, Vishal Bhardwaj will write and direct its sequel. For Talvar 2, Vishal has chosen to focus on the murder of seven-year-old Pradhyumn Thakur of Ryan International School, Gurgaon.
The country was shocked when news came in that Pradhyumn, a Class II student, was found in the school bathroom, his throat slit. It sparked a huge national debate on the safety of children inside schools, on juvenile crime and the pressures that children face. Soon, it emerged that the prime suspect was a 16-year-old student of the same school, who wanted to create a diversion to delay the exams.
“Talvar was about much more than the heinous crime itself. The film held up a mirror to society and exposed several loopholes in the system,” says Vishal, adding, “Such crimes shake the very moral fabric of society and need to be analysed in a much deeper sense. The world is not just black-and-white, there’s more to a crime than just victim and perpetrator. That’s why we have decided to continue making true crime procedurals.”
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Priti Shahani from Junglee Pictures told The Times Of India, “Talvar was more than just a film for us. It is a telling example of how big-screen stories, when handled honestly and sensitively, have the power to alter the lives of people associated with the real incident. We are excited to embark on our vision of compelling storytelling, yet again with Vishal Bharadwaj, and taking the Talvar franchise forward.”