Freedom At Midnight attempts to humanise our founding fathers, says writer Abhinandan Gupta

Making films or web series based on history and historical figures is always tricky. One doesn’t know what can hurt the sentiments of people and lead to an uproar on social media or worse, a lawsuit. But as Abhinandan Gupta, the head writer of Freedom At Midnight points out, it was a 'delicate dance' for him and co-writers Gundeep Kaur, Adwitiya Kareng Das, Divy Nidhi Sharma and Revanta Sarabhai in bringing to screen the recently released web series. 

Based on Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins’ book by the same name, Freedom At Midnight has been helmed by Nikhil Advani. The show narrates the incidents that led to India’s Partition and the formation of Pakistan. 
 
In a candid chat with WION, Gupta explained that there were multiple challenges in adapting a non-fiction book and fictionalising the characters. Apart from sieving through what incidents needed to be adapted for the screen and what to leave out, the writer said that the team had to look at the leaders with the lens of empathy.

“It was a challenge to find out why they did what they did and try to answer that question without judging them,” explained Gupta. "Seeing them through the lens of empathy to understand what they did at that time and what they felt was right at that time. It was also challenging not to see things in hindsight. Sitting in 2024, from the vantage point of hindsight, not to apply to see things from that lens, but to go back to that time and understand why they did what they did.” 

The writer admitted that while adapting the book – which was like a long essay – they had to tweak the timeline. “The book starts in early 1946. Season 1 ended at June 1947. In that one and half years, so much happened that led to Partition. Events that are shown in season 1 are The Shimla Conference, Mountbatten’s coming to India, the Noakhali riots, Bihar Riots- all these events have certain dates and are set chronologically but we had to tweak the timeline to create drama.” 

On Sidhant Gupta’s casting as Jawaharlal Nehru

While the show has received mostly positive reviews from all across, there has been chatter about the ‘miscasting' of actor Sidhant Gupta as former Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Gupta, who stunned everyone last year with his performance in Vikramaditya Motwane’s Jubilee, seemed slightly out of place among veteran actors like Arif Zakaria and Rajendra Chawla, playing a character much older than his real age. 

Gupta addressed this by stating that the writers had no role in the casting of the show but added, “Sidhant Gupta is young to play Nehru, but he has given a credible performance.”

Gupta also mentioned that since most have grown up watching David Attenborough’s Gandhi, the actors who played the leaders in the film set a benchmark for years. “Besides, it is always a challenge to cast people who are as well known and as well photographed as these leaders whether it's Gandhi, Nehru, Patel or Jinnah,” the writer explained. 

Also read: Freedom at Midnight review: Powerful portrayal of history we know and yet we don't

‘Jinnah and Patel were the most conflicted characters’
 
As a writer, Gupta admitted he found Jinnah and Patel’s characters the most interesting. “I thought they were complicated people. Extremely vulnerable and sensitive but the outer facade of being extremely strong men. When you read about them you realise they were emotionally fragile and vulnerable. So as daramatists, it was interesting to show the two striking different characteristics of these two people. Not to be mixed how these men were in real life but how we drew them was interesting.” 

Calling Jinnah’s politics divisive and him a secular man, Gupta said it was interesting how the leader balanced the two aspects. “He was complicated. He asked for a rigid state while being a very cosmopolitan- secular man in his personal life. Political life did not reflect personal life and the contradictions made Jinnah very interesting.”

Gupta gave both Zakaria and Chawla credit for playing the two characters well on screen. 

Nehru was not a reluctant leader

In the show,  prominent Indian leaders are shown taking the hard decision of creating Pakistan out of India. In many parts, Nehru’s character seems like a reluctant leader. Gupta begged to differ and said, “Nehru was conflicted, not reluctant. Nehru was an idealist and had a romantic vision of India. He laid a solid democratic foundation for India eventually and we are still reaping the benefits of the solid foundation that he built. I think it was interesting to see how he had to reconcile his idealism with the demands of hard politics. His idealism was put to test due to hard politics and he transitioned from an activist, demonstrator, and idealist to someone who had to take up the role of a PM of a newly independent India."

Gupta revealed that the team is planning a Season 2 where we will see Nehru coming into his own. 

Freedom At Midnight features Arif Zakaria, Sidhant Gupta, Rajesh Chawla, Ira Dubey, Chirag Vohra and Malishka Mendonsa in key roles. It is streaming on Sony LIV.