THE PRICE OF FREEDOM

Nikhil Advani’s adaptation of Freedom at Midnight details our tumultuous transition to an independent nation

- Suhani Singh

On a hot morning in April, filmmaker Nikhil Advani looks into a vintage wooden mirror as he gets his hair and beard trimmed in the middle of the road. The said road is part of an impressive set mounted for Advani's passion project, Freedom at Midnight, a SonyLIV series which drops on November 15. Based on Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre's eponymous book, the show tracks key events in India's tumultuous battle for independence beginning with Direct Action Day in 1946 and culminating with Mahatma Gandhi's assassination. It's 7.30 in the morning, but Advani is wide awake as he gives a tour of the sets, suitably sooty to show the aftermath of the Partition riots. "With just one line [drawn on the map], 20 million people were uprooted and moved across borders. It is insane..." says Advani.