Canada-based Indo-Canadian film-maker Richie Mehta yesterday Sunday said that initially no streamer wanted to finance ‘Delhi Crime’ as they found it to be “too controversial”.

The show, which finally aired on Netflix, not only was critically-acclaimed all round, but became the first Indian series to receive an Emmy Award for Best Drama Series in 2020.

The Indian-Canadian filmmaker, according to a PTI report from Mumbai yesterday, said the show, which explored the 2012 heinous gangrape and murder of the 23-year-old physiotherapy intern in the national capital, was greenlit only after he rewrote the script on the advice of an HBO executive who was in-charge of shows such as ‘Game of Thrones’ and ‘The Wire’.

“‘Delhi Crime’ was a shot in the dark… It was a 400-page script. It was a seven-hour film. It was going to be very boring… All of a sudden, I got financed when I rewrote it. Having said that the streamers wouldn’t finance it, Amazon and Netflix.

“This was around 2017-18. It was too controversial. Nobody wanted to touch sexual violence in a series understandably,” Mehta said at a masterclass during the inaugural World Audio Visual & Entertainment Summit (WAVES) in Mumbai.

He said the first two episodes of ‘Delhi Crime’ were showcased at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival under the Indie Episodic category and was eventually acquired by Netflix

“We didn’t know what to do. We sent it to the Sundance Film Festival. And waited to see if they’ll accept it as a series. It got accepted at a new section, showing the first two episodes. We sold it that week. All the streamers had said no, they all came (back), and they did after they saw it,” he added.

When things weren’t working out for him, the director said he found some financiers for the show in the US through his agents in Los Angeles.

“They were interested in investing in Indian content. They read the 400 pages. They saw my previous work, and said, “We’ve seen your films, we’ve read this (‘Delhi Crime’). If you do exactly what you say you’re going to do. We think this series will sell. Go do it.’ They gave me the money,” he said.

Mehta said he structured ‘Delhi Crime’ season one, which won the International Emmy for Best Drama Series in 2020, like a “tree”.

“‘Delhi Crime’ is about the world that these people inhabit. That’s why I take digressions… Just nothing to do with the plot of finding these people, but it has to do with police officers stationed so far away from the central authority with such dangers that they don’t know how to cope. You all know this, but if you’ve seen it, you understand how it relates to the world,” he added about the show fronted by Shefali Shah.

The director, also known for Prime Video series ‘Poacher’, said ‘Delhi Crime’ was the first project where all of the talent was Indian.

“I am convinced that India has the best talent on earth, in front and behind the camera. and I wanted to show this to the world. You think India is gang rape and sexual molestation of women. When you show up here, you realise there are women solving the problem in a manner that you have never seen on earth. You think India is a poor country. There is poverty here, there is also the best artistic talent on earth,” he said.

His intention from day one, Mehta said, was to make movies and shows that he thought were relevant to the world.

“We don’t need to make movies for each other. We already know most of the things I talk about. You already know about poaching, that it’s bad. I want to talk about heroism in the face of sexual violence, you already know this. We are not making movies for each other. We are making movies to change the world, and in this room, we are already changed,” he observed.