Finding perspective in 'Delhi Crime' was biggest challenge: Director Richie Mehta

How can something positive come out of something so terrible? That was the dilemma "Delhi Crime" director Richie Mehta faced while making the series on the 2012 Delhi gangrape-murder, which triggered massive protests and led to a change in India's rape laws.

Told from the perspective of the Delhi Police team investigating the crime that made global headlines, Mehta said it was a "delicate balancing act".

The series deconstructs the case of the 23-year-old physiotherapy intern who was abducted and gangraped in a moving bus on the night of December 16, 2012 before she was abandoned on a Delhi road. Her injuries were so grievous that she died in a Singapore hospital a fortnight later.

"Certainly, the biggest challenge was to first find what the story was that was worth telling, and from who's perspective. And additionally, what was this all trying to represent? Essentially, how can something positive come out of something so terrible," Mehta told PTI in an email interview.

"And once I landed on something I was comfortable with - which took years - the next challenge was maintaining those threads throughout the creation of the series, without any generation loss. Through every step, making sure we didn't fall off the delicate line we were balancing on, staying true to those initial goals," Mehta added.

The Netflix show has been praised for its sensitive take on what is considered one of the most horrific crimes against women in India. It is a hard watch for some and Mehta said he can relate to why some people will not want to revisit it on screen.

"I can understand that, truly. I respect that. What I tried to do was go straight through the event, and come out the other end with some sense of understanding, so that perhaps we could move forward. But I really do get it, if people prefer not to spend a Saturday night in that world again," he said.

Asked whether it was a case of justice delayed as the perpetrators are on death row, Mehta said it is a complex question and one that he does not have an answer for.

Of the six men convicted for the crime, one allegedly committed suicide in jail while another was a juvenile who has already completed his sentence, and four have been sentenced to death.

"There is a moment in the series when Bhupendra explains to Vartika that the real punishment is already being served, as they sit in jail and await the termination of their lives, not knowing when that will happen. It's such a complex question, I have tried to explore it in multiple ways," he added, referring to his main characters -- Vartika Chaturvedi, the woman officer heading the investigation, and Bhpendra Singh, her deputy.

The recent rape and brutal killing of a Hyderabad veterinarian has shaken the nation once again. The four men accused of the crime were killed by police in an "encounter".

When asked whether he saw it as a problem, Mehta said, "You have labelled it as a problem, and I agree. Perhaps we'll never know the real circumstances around the police encounter, but the fact is the crimes were brutal, and these kinds of incidents continue non-stop around the country, and indeed, the world. It breaks my heart."