Is Trial By Fire Based On A True Story?

Netflix series Trial By Fire has come out today. Featuring Abhay Deol and Rajshri Deshpande in lead roles, the series reminds the audience of the tragic incident of 1997 that shook the country.

Directed by Prashant Nair, the series will capture the Uphaar Cinema Tragedy in detail and how the families of the victims who lost their lives in the fire battled for a very long time to get justice. It is produced by Endemol Shine India and House of Talkies and stars some remarkable actors like Rajshri Deshpande, Abhay Deol, Ashish Vidyarthi, Rajesh Tailang, Ratna Pathak, Anupam Kher, Shardul Bharadwaj and Shilpa Shukla.

Trial By Fire Based On True Story

The ">trailer of the film gave the audience a vision of what lies ahead of the audience who are planning to watch the film. It also reminded the Indian audience of the tragic death of several people at the Uphaar Cinema in Delhi in 1997. Like today, in 1997 it was June 13 on a Friday when the film Border was screening at the theatres.

Situated in the Green Park locality of Delhi, Uphaar Cinema had two of its electrical transformers blast on the early morning of the tragedy, following that fire broke out. The security guard on duty called the fire brigade and informed the Delhi Vidyut Board (DVB). The fire was brought under control within the next few minutes and the officers of DVB tried to fix the issue that caused the fire. They brought back the electric supply to the building by 11 am that morning but it is said that the work they did was shoddy and did not completely resolve the issue. The theatre started screening the film Border at 3 pm in the afternoon and around 5 pm the transformers leaked oil that spread throughout the place this place was near the parking space and immediately set the cars ablaze and a huge fire started in the building. The smoke got in the whole building and the DVB got alerted about the situation and the energy supply was stopped which automatically stopped the screening. At this point, carbon monoxide was seeping in through the ventilators inside the cinema hall and it was locked from the outside. With the power supply cut off, creating a huge commotion inside the cinema hall and lack of crisis management almost 60 people died of asphyxiation and more than a hundred were injured at the stampede.

The families of the victims later formed an association called The Association of Victims of Uphaar Fire Tragedy (AVUT) and they fought for years together to bring justice for the death of their loved ones. One of the breakthrough cases of civil compensation law in India was filed by them and won rupees 25 crores as compensation but later with a Supreme Court order the amount was slashed. In the end, the Ansal Brothers who owned the cinema hall received minor punishment.

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