Sometimes the most disturbing crime stories are the ones that have roots in reality. Indian filmmakers have turned some of the country’s most notorious crimes, financial scandals, prison stories and police investigations into gripping movies and web series. While some recreate documented events closely, others fictionalise names and characters while drawing inspiration from real cases. From Delhi Crime and Scam 1992 to the recently released Raakh, here are gripping Indian crime dramas inspired by shocking real events.
8 Gripping Indian Crime Shows Inspired By Real Life Events On Netflix, Prime and More
1. Delhi Crime – Netflix
Few Indian crime dramas feel as unsettling as Delhi Crime, whose first season follows DCP Vartika Chaturvedi and her team as they race to identify and arrest those responsible for a horrific assault in Delhi. The season draws from the police investigation following the 2012 Delhi gang-rape case, although names and certain details were fictionalised. With Shefali Shah leading the cast, the series focuses on the painstaking investigation, the enormous pressure on the police and the search for the perpetrators rather than sensationalising the crime.
2. Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story – SonyLIV
Pratik Gandhi stars as Harshad Mehta, an ambitious stockbroker who rises from modest beginnings to become one of the biggest names on the Bombay Stock Exchange before everything begins to unravel. Based on true events, Scam 1992 chronicles the massive 1992 securities scam and the investigation that followed journalist Sucheta Dalal’s reporting. Money, ambition, banking loopholes and enormous egos collide in one of the most gripping financial crime dramas made in India.
3. Raakh – Prime Video
Set in Delhi in 1978, Raakh begins when two teenage siblings disappear, leaving their family devastated and triggering a massive police manhunt. Starring Ali Fazal, Sonali Bendre and Aamir Bashir, the series is a fictionalised crime drama inspired by the notorious Ranga-Billa case involving the kidnapping and murder of siblings Geeta and Sanjay Chopra. Along with the investigation, the show explores the grief of the victims’ family and the terrifying psychology of the men behind the crime.
4. Black Warrant – Netflix
Black Warrant takes viewers inside Delhi’s infamous Tihar Jail through the eyes of a young jailer entering a world dominated by hardened criminals, corruption and powerful prisoners. The series is adapted from Sunil Gupta and Sunetra Choudhury’s book Black Warrant: Confessions of a Tihar Jailer, which draws from Gupta’s long career inside Tihar. Set largely during the 1980s, the drama fictionalises several real incidents and encounters involving some of India’s most notorious prisoners.
5. Jamtara: Sabka Number Ayega – Netflix
A group of youngsters in Jharkhand discover that convincing strangers over a phone call can make them more money than they ever imagined. Their phishing operation soon attracts politicians, criminals and the police, turning their small-town scam into a dangerous game. Jamtara: Sabka Number Ayega is a fictionalised true-crime series inspired by real phishing scams originating from Jamtara, a district that became infamous as a major hub for cyber fraud.
6. Khakee: The Bihar Chapter – Netflix
Khakee: The Bihar Chapter follows upright IPS officer Amit Lodha as he takes on feared criminal Chandan Mahto amid Bihar’s dangerous mix of crime, politics and corruption. The series draws from Lodha’s real experiences and his book Bihar Diaries, which recounts his years serving as a police officer in the state and pursuing dangerous criminals. Names and several incidents are dramatised, but the central cop-versus-gangster story has a strong real-life foundation.
7. Dahaad – Prime Video
When several women are discovered dead under suspiciously similar circumstances, police officer Anjali Bhaati begins to suspect that what appear to be suicides may actually be the work of a serial killer. Starring Sonakshi Sinha and Vijay Varma, Dahaad is a fictional crime thriller loosely inspired by the crimes of Mohan Kumar, better known as Cyanide Mohan, who targeted women with promises of marriage. The series changes the characters, locations and several details, making it an inspired-by drama rather than a direct recreation of the real case.
8. Scam 2003: The Telgi Story – SonyLIV
After exploring Harshad Mehta’s rise and fall, the Scam franchise turns to another extraordinary financial crime with the story of Abdul Karim Telgi. Scam 2003 follows Telgi’s journey from humble beginnings to becoming the mastermind behind a massive counterfeit stamp-paper operation that spread across the country. Gagan Dev Riar plays Telgi in this true-event-based drama about ambition, corruption and a scam worth thousands of crores.
Which ones you loved the most?
