EXCLUSIVE | Patrick Graham: 'The second daughter of Shakereh Khaleeli said Swami Shraddhanand partied on her grave'

Filmmaker Patrick Graham has already directed Betaal and Ghoul for Netflix, and has now recently directed Dancing on the Grave for Amazon Prime Video India. And in an exclusive interview with Firstpost, he spoke about the same.

What does the title Dancing on the Grave signify for you?

This is an interesting title because it works nicely on a couple of levels, which means there is a figurative expression; if you are dancing on someone’s grave, you are posthumously disrespecting them. You are besmirching them after their death, you are damaging somebody’s reputation. There’s a more literal version of the title too, we have quotes from people and witnesses who were there at that time. And that’s exactly where the title comes from. When a journalist interviewed the second daughter of this deceased woman, she told him he was throwing parties on her grave. So that’s where the title comes from.

Where did the idea come from?

The idea comes from India Today’s massive amounts of archival stories that they have been reporting over the years. The producers put together a list of stories that they felt would be worthy of being translated on the screen, and one of them was this story. When they sent me the story written out in detail, I was taken aback and felt that this could be a story that could work well as a series.

What are the elements that you need to make a good thriller?

There are many different theories about that. Alfred Hitchcock said you need to make the audiences aware of things that the characters are not aware of; a time bomb under a bus for example. I really think you need an engaging story, strong characters, your stakes really need to be high. This story has all the ingredients a thriller needs. But you also need to remember that this is a true story and real people were involved, it’s not just about entertainment.

What were the discussions that went behind the casting of the series?

We just needed to find actors who resembled the actual people as closely as possible, so that was quite an exhausting process. We had Parag, our casting director, who I’ve worked with before, who is really good at finding people. So yes, we screen tested a lot of people.

About Dancing on the Grave

The sudden disappearance and murder of socialite Shakereh Khaleeli back in the early 90s sent shockwaves across the nation. The culprit turned out to be her own husband, Murali Manohar Mishra aka Swami Shraddhanand, who was a supposed Godman. Shakereh Khaleeli & Murali Manohar Mishra aka Swami Shraddhanand were married to each other before the former’s murder.

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