Entertainment lawyer Priyanka Khimani remembers watching The Good Wife on its release in 2009 and instantly becoming a fan of Alicia Florrick, played by Julianna Margulies. She even wondered how interesting it would be to attempt a similar legal drama in India. Cut to 2021: creator-director Suparn S Varma, and writers Hussain Dalal and Siddharth Kumar began reimagining the legal drama to create The Trial.

With the adaptation rights of the original in hand, the makers needed someone who could simplify the legal jargon in the show and help them centre it on Indian judicial laws. Enter Khimani. “From day one, I was brought into the writer’s room. There was no doubt in their minds that I was a perfect fit for this because I come from both worlds—a lawyer and a writer,” she says. The former model had written her first television show, the 60-episode thriller, Tamanna House, at 15. While she pursued her law degree, Khimani wrote scripts as a side hustle and was long ingrained in the glamour world.