'Trial by Fire'- A Wake Up Call For Indian Cinemas

The Uphaar Cinema Fire broke out in Green Park, Delhi, on June 13, 1997, due to lack of inspection and short-term repairs towards a transformer, having caught fire, that was situated on the ground floor of the cinema, under the pretext of fixing it before the hall was operational. A whopping total of 59 deaths occurred due to asphyxiation, among severe injuries due to attempts to escape the incident.

26 years later, the renowned streaming platform, Netflix, released a miniseries documenting the incident from the narrative of the parents of two children who had perished in the fire, ensuing a 26 year long legal battle against the owners of the cinema, the Ansal brothers, who were sentenced to up to two years in prison, yet had been released merely months after their imprisonment, due to the consideration for their age.

Although ex-gratia of 1 lakh rupees to 8 lakh rupees was provided to the families of victims as compensation, many are angered at the decision of a two decade battle that resulted in the release of the supposed culprits. A new stir of hope for justice for the families presented itself as the release of the series, ‘Trial by Fire’, upholding a firm grip on providing a fresh perspective on how the judicial process may not have been able to provide the proper justice to the families of the deceased.

Trial by Fire also accurately captures the emotions felt in the wake of a ray of light that has kept getting extinguished as an exhausting case has been dragged while being unable to progress anywhere as families struggle to avenge victims of the fire and provide closure to an incident that rose into one of the worst fire tragedies in Indian history.

Written by Tarini Dayal