On December 16, 2012, Canadian writer-director Richie Mehta was visiting Delhi, working on an independent production Siddharth, as the Nirbhaya gang-rape case snowballed into a national headline, shocking citizens - the Capital's young in particular - enough to hit the streets, protest, and collectively wonder aloud. What the hell just happened!

A few days later, while confirmations on the severity of the crime had settled in, Mehta met a family friend, recently retired police commissioner Neeraj Kumar, who was familiar with his work, and asked if he might want to follow the thread of that story for a film.