Indian auteur Vishal Bhardwaj is developing a film based on the Tarun Tejpal rape case, the director confirmed with Variety, hours after the Bombay High Court overturned a Goa sessions court acquittal and convicted the former Tehelka editor of rape, sentencing him to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment.
Bhardwaj, whose adaptations of Shakespeare – “Maqbool,” “Omkara,” “Haider” – have established him as one of Hindi cinema’s foremost interpreters of moral complexity, said he has read the Goa trial court’s 527-page judgment multiple times and described the divergence between the two rulings as the creative catalyst. He was in Goa for the hearing of the case.
“The contradiction between the two judgments makes it a perfect case for a ‘Rashomon’-style narrative,” Bhardwaj tells Variety. “There are a lot of facts and incidents in this case that nobody knows about, and people will be amused and surprised to discover them on screen.”
He said the density of the legal record is precisely what drew him in.
“As they say, the devil lies in the detail,” Bhardwaj says. “How do you expect people to go through the tiring, dry legal language of a 500-plus-page court judgment? I have gone through the minutest details. I have read the judgment many times and am still grappling with it. It’s a very important case for society.”
Bhardwaj was careful to stress that his approach has not yet hardened into a fixed point of view. “It’s too early for me to make up my mind on what the film is about,” he says, “but I’m very clear that the approach must be that of a dispassionate observer, like a true film journalist, if I may say so.”
That neutrality, he added, is structural as much as ethical. “Any crime of this nature, one with many points of view beyond reasonable doubt, must be approached without preconceived ideas or a biased starting point,” he says. “No story is complete without all the different points of view, especially in a “Rashomon” structure, because half a glass of water is also half empty at the same time – the only difference is perspective.”
On casting, Bhardwaj set an unusual brief. “I want the actor to be unaware of the crime, if possible, and to set the judgments aside,” Bhardwaj says. “I would love for him to approach it as fiction.”
The project is being produced by Bhardwaj alongside a major Bollywood studio, which he declined to name. He deflects a question about his authority on Shakespeare with characteristic self-deprecation. “I’m blessed by the almighty himself, otherwise how could an average student from a small town become an authority on Shakespearean adaptations?”
He was equally expansive on what the film ultimately represents. “It’s not about India in 2026,” he says. “It’s about the truth, which must come out at any cost, at any 26th year of any century.”
The Tejpal case has had one of the longest legal arcs in recent Indian criminal history. The former editor was arrested in 2013 after a junior colleague accused him of sexual assault. A Goa sessions court acquitted him in 2021, a verdict the state challenged. The Bombay High Court’s ruling on Aug. 6 called the trial court judgment “perverse” and relied on the complainant’s testimony, CCTV footage, and Tejpal’s own apology emails as evidence of guilt. Tejpal has said he will appeal to the Supreme Court.
