Sanjay Gupta had envisioned star-studded web series CIU with Anil Kapoor, Naseeruddin Shah, Akshaye Khanna

Sanjay Gupta. Pics/Instagram, AFP

Few things excited Sanjay Gupta as much as the prospect of helming a riveting crime thriller. And the filmmaker had zeroed in on one such subject before his sudden death on October 30. mid-day has learnt that he was developing the screen adaptation of the true crime thriller, CIU: Criminals in Uniform, written by investigative journalists Dr Sanjay Singh and Rakesh Trivedi. Gupta, who would have made his web series debut with it, was planning it as an eight-part series.

Speaking to mid-day, Singh revealed that the filmmaker had approached Naseeruddin Shah, Anil Kapoor, Akshaye Khanna, and Dia Mirza for the series. "Sanjay Gupta held several meetings with us and had prepared an elaborate pitch deck. He was in discussions with Anil Kapoor, Naseeruddin Shah, Akshaye Khanna, Emraan Hashmi, Atul Kulkarni, Mahesh Manjrekar, and Ronit Bose Roy. His ambition was to create one of India's most star-studded web series."

Dr Sanjay Singh and Rakesh Trivedi

Inspired by the 2021 Antilia bomb scare, CIU: Criminals in Uniform is a fictionalised telling of how the controversial head of Mumbai Police's Crime Investigation Unit leads the probe after explosives are found in a vehicle parked outside the house of a wealthy business tycoon. Singh added, "Sanjay believed the book had potential for a gripping web series. He understood the sensitivity of the subject."

Gupta's 32-year career was built on stylised crime thrillers and action dramas like Kaante (2002), Zinda (2006), Shootout at Wadala (2013), and Kaabil (2017). What distinguished him from other filmmakers, according to Singh, was that his stories were never only about the crime. "It was about the people, circumstances, hidden truths, and the larger story that the public had never been told."

The roles they were envisioned in

Anil Kapoor as Commissioner, Mumbai Police; Naseeruddin Shah as a bureaucrat; Akshaye Khanna as Assistant Commissioner of Police; Emraan Hashmi as a senior inspector

A still from ‘Raakh'

Sanjay Singh revealed that Sanjay Gupta was keen on revisiting the 1978 Ranga-Billa case, despite Prime Video's ‘Raakh' having recently explored the story. He shared, "I've written a book on Ranga and Billa, and Sanjay was interested in bringing their story to the screen. When ‘Raakh' came out, Sanjay felt that the makers had missed an opportunity to explore a much more complex crime story. He believed there was still tremendous potential to make a powerful and factually accurate web series on them"