Jigna Vora Speaks About Her Arrest That Inspired Hansal Mehta's 'Scoop'

Karishma Tanna plays former crime reporter Jigna Vora in Hansal Mehta's Scoop.

Jigna Vora and Hansal Mehta speak about Scoop.

(Photo: The Quint)

One of the most talked-about shows of late is the Hansal Mehta-directorial Scoop. Starring Karishma Tanna, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub in lead roles, the Netflix show is based on the Jigna Vora case. The murder of a veteran crime reporter J Dey (played by Prosenjit Chatterjee) thrusts one of his colleagues, Jigna (Karishma), into the nexus of police, media and the Mumbai underworld.

The Quint caught up with Jigna and Hansal to talk about the case and the show. When asked about why he chose to make a show based on this case and Jigna's memoir Hansal replied, "There were two things. First, I was fascinated with the character and I wanted to know more. I also felt that though the story is from 2011, it resonates with our current times. Every one of us today is as vulnerable to media trial as Jigna was at that time".

Jigna spoke about why she didn't return to journalism after being released from jail.

"At that time, it was a conscious decision to not return to this field as too many things were happening at that time. But when certain events were taking place, I realised how much I missed being a crime reporter. However, one of the bail conditions was that I couldn't talk to the media and even they were barred from approaching me. In retrospect, I think that the bail order was good because not many people knew what I was up to these past 10 years."

Jigna Vora, former crime reporter

Jigna even recalled how difficult her days in jail were. "Until my son came to meet me in jail, which was almost a month after I was arrested, I was in shock. What was hurting and pinching me was that why do I deserve to be in this place? As shown in Scoop, I was strip-checked after entering the prison and I have still not been able to come out of that humiliation. I had no clue what my future would look like and everything was completely dark," Jigna told The Quint.

Watch the video for more.

Editor: Veeru Krishan Mohan