'Nehru-Patel were Jai-Veeru, Gandhi was Thakur and Jinnah was Gabbar.'
Nikkhil Advani, a master of long-form storytelling, reflects on Freedom At Midnight and what it was to make a two-part series on the most difficult period of India's recent history in these polarised times.
Making a series on one of the most debated books on the events leading to Partition, Freedom At Midnight (SonyLiv), is not easy. But Nikkhil Advani, schooled on the film sets of Sudhir Mishra, Aziz Mirza and Saeed Mirz, Aditya Chopra and Karan Johar, is a master of the craft.
Adept at both bubble-gum rom-coms and real-life dramas, and armed with an impressive filmography, he knows how to tell stories that hit you straight in the heart -- and remain there.
So, if there was one filmmaker who could take India's turbulent history of Freedom and Partition and tell it to us in a compelling, riveting way -- it had to be him.
Advani and his brilliant writers and actors make you feel, cry and reflect; they pique your curiosity and make you want to Google or look for books to find out more about events and people who played big or small roles on the difficult road to freedom and the birth of our nation.
"If Freedom At Midnight was the last thing I ever did, I would be happy," says Advani on The Rediff Podcast as he readies to drop two more history-based shows -- Hum Hindustani on Netflix and Revolutionaries on Amazon Prime Video this year.
He then plans to step back and go back to making rom-coms -- not one, but 5! This time mature love stories in the 40 plus phase of life.
In conversation with Archana Masih/Rediff, Nikkhil Advani gives us a fascinating account of the two years of filming Freedom At Midnight, his favourite scenes from the show, the response from the film industry, two events that could have averted Partition and why it is unfair to sit in judgement on our past.
© 2026