Meghna Gulzar will direct a series based on the important cases handled by Rakesh Maria, the former Police Commissioner of Mumbai. Produced by Reliance Entertainment and Phantom Films, the series will focus on the major cases handled by Maria over his illustrious career, including the serial bomb blasts in 1993, the Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazaar twin blasts in 2003, and the interrogation of Ajmal Kasab, the only terrorist captured alive in the November 2008 terror attacks on Mumbai.

“More than the nostalgia, it’s also a valuable opportunity to place before the people the extraordinary work of the Mumbai Police when facing tough challenges and working against all odds,” Maria said in a press release.

“Mr Rakesh Maria’s life-experiences and his prolific career in law-enforcement are a powerful lens to explore the chronology of crime and terror, in our society - as a city, as well as, as a country and a geographical region,” added Meghna Gulzar, the director of the hits Talvar (2015) and Raazi (2018).

It is not clear yet whether the series will be aired on one of the streaming platforms, such as Netflix (for whom Phantom recently rolled out Sacred Games), or television.

Maria was played by Kay Kay Menon in Phantom co-founder Anurag Kashyap’s Black Friday (2007), which is based on S Hussain Zaidi’s book about the conspiracy behind the 1993 serial blasts.