Leena Yadav talks moving to non-fiction storytelling, making House of Secrets for Netflix

The deaths of 11 members of the Chundawat family who resided in Burari House, Delhi was not just shocking but also perplexing. What truly happened in that home in June 2018 – considered a case of suicide following occult rituals, or perhaps murder? The truth will forever remain a mystery, or maybe not. Filmmaker Leena Yadav’s true-crime docuseries House of Secrets: Burari Deaths (Netflix, from 8 October) starts where the police investigation ends. Yadav is showrunner and co-director (along with Anubhav Chopra) of the three-part series. It is the Parched (2015) and _Rajma Chawal_  (2018) director’s first attempt at non-fiction and she’s quite sure it won’t be her last. In a video interview, she spoke about the process of crafting a documentary and why she picked the Burari deaths as her subject. As a storyteller, what made this story compelling for you? It was a compelling story from the moment it happened. I didn’t feel like I got answers. It was something that got into my head, and then when the documentary team at Netflix asked if I had an idea, I said this is one case I would want to explore, to find whatever truth I can find. I knew there was so much more behind it. Was it easy to get access to police files and to get neighbours and family members to open up? How do you go to people who are close to the family and ask them to speak about this, even if it is from a sensitive perspective? Luckily from the word go, the police and investigating officers were of immense help. After that, we approached people in the neighbourhood. The biggest challenge is that people are not very aware of what documentary filmmaking is all about. They are hesitant to talk, especially when someone is dead. Because once people pass, we only say good things. There is so much more respect for the dead than for the living. Also private matters often remain private. So we had to sensitively nudge people to go into uncomfortable spaces. This is why I was making this film – to talk about the real stuff behind the scenes. [caption id=“attachment_10022501” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] A policeman stands on the balcony of the house, where 11 members of a family were found hanging from an iron grill, in Burari area of New Delhi.(PTI Photo)[/caption] Did you have a structure in mind for your approach? I had not done a documentary before but I decided I was not going to get attached to any structure or narrative. I just knew the basic facts and then started the conversation. That way you discover so much more. It was draining to take the family to that place and ask them those questions. The brother of one of the victims said it was very therapeutic because they had not even spoken about the issues amongst themselves. When something bad happens we tend not to talk about disturbing things, but we do need to get it out of our systems. Our structure was to present it exactly the way we experienced it. To start with, it was a spectacle that blew up. Then the layers came in, and that is exactly the approach: seeing this as an event and then getting into each layer of revelations. How did you get these non-professionals, regular people to open up on camera? There is interesting power in the camera. Suddenly people who have never been in front of a camera feel pushed to go to the truth. It’s like something is recording you so you better tell the truth now. Lots of people are able to ignore the camera’s presence. Sometimes I even forgot the camera was there. So you place the camera and then you have to try and forget it exists and just go into the conversation. However, in fiction, there is so much ceremony around the camera. The case, the conclusion is in the public domain. So how does this documentary take the story forward? The news reported it to a point, and a lot of it was very sensational. Some re-creations were not correct. And then the reportage just stopped.

We don’t know what happened to the case and that is where the documentary will take you. More than a ‘whodunit’ it is a ‘whydunit’ and even though the first question is who, why is much more important in this case.

A compelling crime drama needs multiple points of view and truths. Does this story have that? It does. There is still a part that no one will know, which is what really happened in that house, on that night. Therefore there are multiple perspectives – cops, friends, family, psychologists, etc. All of us also had so many theories but before every interview, we would reset and wipe those out. I did pursue a few to see if they led to any truth or not. This was a process of engaging and then disengaging and becoming neutral again. Does the series make a bigger comment? As a society, there are lots of things we need to introspect on. As a society, we need to have uncomfortable conversations and mental health needs information, attention and a lot more awareness. After directing fiction features, why move to non-fiction? Mainly because this story was compelling, but also because I have wanted to do a documentary for a while. I want to be challenged and see things from a new lens each time. Documentary is such a different process. There is an absolute loss of control. You have to submit to letting the story reveal itself to you. Of course, you have theories when you are dealing with something so complex, but not imposing that on anyone, at any point was a huge learning. Then the revelation is so much more than you could have ever plotted. This is a learning I will take into narrative because sometimes you have decided the end of a story and you are not listening to your characters enough. One needs to find a different way of writing now. Where do you go from here? Lost. I don’t know. I want to continue doing documentaries, but I want to do narrative now. After the times we have come through, I need to do something very different. House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths will premiere on Netflix on 8 October Watch the trailer here