This epic political thriller/drama series delves into the partition of India and the lives of the freedom fighters involved

Freedom at Midnight is an upcoming Indian Hindi-language historical drama web series on Sony LIV, adapted from the book of the same name, authored by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins. The epic political thriller/drama will vividly bring to life pivotal moments from the year of India’s independence and its partition through the lens of influential historical personalities. It promises an immersive dive into one of India’s most pivotal eras — the struggle for independence and the subsequent partition.

Produced by Emmay Entertainment in association with StudioNext, the show is helmed by Nikkhil Advani as the showrunner and director, with a compelling narrative crafted by Abhinandan Gupta, Adwitiya Kareng Das, Gundeep Kaur, Divya Nidhi Sharma, Revanta Sarabhai and Ethan Taylor. The series features a stellar cast, including Sidhant Gupta, Chirag Vohra, Rajendra Chawla, Arif Zakaria, Ira Dubey, Malishka Mendonsa, Rajesh Kumar, KC Shankar, Luke McGibney, Cordelia Bugeja, Alistair Finlay, Andrew Cullum and Richard Teverson in pivotal roles. Ahead of the release of the show, we caught up with Malishka Mendonsa and Chirag Vohra — who play Sarojini Naidu and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi respectively — for a sneak peek into the show. Here are excerpts from the two interviews.

“I am blessed to have been a part of this show. I never dreamt in my wildest dreams that I’d be essaying Gandhi in such a platform before. Nikkhil Advani and his team have spent four years working on the show and so you can expect the quality to be outstanding. As an actor, I think it is a wonderful project to be a part of. Right from the writing to the art, to costume, to makeup, to sound design — everything! Every department has excelled,” begins Chirag. “It’s a Nikkhil Advani production, it’s a big, big platform. The scale is bound to be large. Nothing like this has ever been done before,” Malishka adds.

Essaying two historically loved characters who are also deified as freedom fighters however comes as no easy feat. We ask the two actors how those experiences were. “See, Gandhi’s character is something that is now in the public domain. Everyone has seen at least one portrayal of Gandhi. For the role, I watched many references. I have seen his video references , his speech references and I have also read his autobiography. But mostly, the reference point for me was the script,” explains Chirag.

“I think Sarojini Naidu is the only real woman freedom fighter, that we all know so much about. I remember reading up a lot about her. I got a book of her poems and speeches. I personally love Sarojini Naidu as a character and the fact that I’m going to be playing this one woman who stood out among these men and was such an integral part of the movement — that really excited me. Also, this was especially important to me because I’d already essayed her younger,” Malishka chimes in.

But what according to the cast makes this show really stand out, we ask? “The scenes where there is an emotional connect — I don’t think it has been shown anywhere else. Gandhi had a strong bond with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. You know, scenes where they are emotionally connected with each other, where they disagree with each other, where they get upset with each other, where they get angry with each other in a controlled manner. You will not see these portrayals anywhere else. These different aspects of their relationships have been shown in a very unique way in our show,” concludes Chirag.

Releases today. Streaming on SonyLIV.

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