You sense Patrick Graham’s empathy long before you see the instincts of a sensational true-crime filmmaker when mid-day sits down with him to discuss Hathras – 16 Days. “The reason it gained notoriety was because of the press coverage at the time and the forced cremation,” Graham says almost clinically, before adding the line that hangs over the documentary: ‘To this day it is still representative of frequently occurring crimes.’

The idea that the Hathras case was never an isolated tragedy, but a recurring reality, became the foundation of the Zee5 docu-series. Instead of revisiting the case as a solved headline, Graham focuses on the 16 volatile days between the assault, the victim’s death, the late-night cremation, and the media-political storm that followed.