Mumbai, Nov 20 (IANS): Director Nikkhil Advani, who is receiving a lot of positive response to his recently released streaming show ‘Freedom at Midnight’, has said that his visual reference for the period drama was the Netflix show ‘The Crown’.

Nikkhil spoke with IANS about his show which is based on the eponymous book by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre.

The series stars Sidhant Gupta as Jawaharlal Nehru, Chirag Vohra as Mahatma Gandhi, Rajendra Chawla as Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Arif Zakaria as Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Ira Dubey as Fatima Jinnah, Malishka Mendonsa as Sarojini Naidu, Rajesh Kumar as Liaquat Ali Khan, KC Shankar as V.P. Menon, Luke McGibney as Lord Louis Mountbatten, Cordelia Bugeja as Lady Edwina Mountbatten, Alistair Finlay as Archibald Wavell, Andrew Cullum as Clement Attlee, Richard Teverson as Cyril Radcliffe in pivotal roles.

Talking about the visual reference, Nikkhil told IANS, “When you are making a period piece, the first thing is to make everything ‘sepia’, fully warm. So, we decided that there will be no sepia. The reference for us became, ‘The Crown’, the Netflix show. Very strong backlight coming out from the window, and one source of light. There’s hardly any lighting other than things that are in the frame. So, if Nehru is sitting next to a lamp, that is the light source. If Gandhi is sitting by a window, that is the light source”.

He further mentioned, “Also, because all these are the characters that are well-known, so if I just put them in silhouette, you will know who it is. The first shot of Gandhi I wanted to shoot from the back, and the minute Chirag entered the frame, you don't have to know, you don't have to say, but it became a natural revelation of Gandhi”.

Produced by Emmay Entertainment (Monisha Advani & Madhu Bhojwani) in association with StudioNext, ‘Freedom at Midnight’ is streaming on Sony LIV.