How Delhi Crime set the bar for cop shows

With its third season looming, Mint speaks to the stars and creators of the Netflix show, whose gritty tone has been imitated but not bettered

- Udita Jhunjhunwala

Stills from Delhi Crime Season 3.

Since its debut in 2019, Delhi Crime has stood apart in India's streaming landscape. Created and initially directed by Richie Mehta (Siddharth, Poacher), and then directed, in its second and third seasons, by Tanuj Chopra, the Netflix series has layered storytelling and an unhurried tone. It has been both popular and influential, spawning a host of imitators across streaming platforms. Each season has reflected a different aspect of Delhi, transforming true crime into something intimate and unsettling.

In Season 3, Delhi Crime expands its canvas. DCP Vartika Chaturvedi, the series lead played by Shefali Shah, is pulled into a human trafficking nexus run by a woman known as Meena (Huma Qureshi), even as she investigates the case of an injured baby abandoned at a hospital, a story inspired by the real-life baby Falak tragedy. The two cases intersect as Chaturvedi and her team take on a new challenge.

What makes Delhi Crime connect so viscerally with audiences? "I've thought about this a lot," Tanuj Chopra says. "Maybe it's my directing," he jokes, "but honestly, it's Shefali. She has this magnetic hold as Vartika. Every time there's a problem, you cut to her face and something resolves. It's that marriage of actor and character-moral integrity, ferocity, relentlessness. She is the moral compass of the show."

For producer Apoorva Bakshi, that moral compass has always defined the show. "From the start, Delhi Crime was never built to judge,' she says. "Richie created it as a mirror, and Tanuj carried that forward with the same integrity. The show reflects, it doesn't preach. And that's why even people in Delhi love it because it feels like their truth."