Netflix film spotlights Indian inspector who nabbed 'Bikini Killer' twice

A Netflix drama revisits a lesser-told chapter in the hunt for Charles Sobhraj, the so-called Bikini Killer, by focusing on the Indian police officer who jailed him twice. The film stars Manoj Bajpayee as Inspector Madhukar Zende, the Mumbai-based officer who arrested Sobhraj in 1971 and later helped recapture him after a dramatic jailbreak in Delhi in 1986. Jim Sarbh portrays Sobhraj, reimagined for the screen as Carl Bhojraj. The narrative follows three intense weeks in 1986, as Zende and a team of investigators race across cities from Mumbai to Goa in a renewed bid to bring the international criminal to justice.

The escape from Delhi’s high-security Tihar prison began on March 16, 1986, when Sobhraj used a ruse about his birthday to drug and overwhelm dormitory staff, facilitating a breakout that ended his early return to the streets. In the days that followed, he resurfaced in Mumbai, where Zende — already known for having captured him a decade earlier — was drawn back into the hunt. The film traces the tension of a veteran investigator who faced a foe famed for disguises, deceptions and a talent for slipping through the cracks of law enforcement.

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From Mumbai to Goa, the pursuit tightens as Zende’s team follows a trail that points to a possible crossing point to the United States, where Sobhraj is believed to be heading to join his wife. The breakthrough comes with a location known to accommodate international calls for affluent visitors: the O’Coqueiro restaurant in Porvorim, Goa. On the evening of April 6, the film shows the team in position as a hockey match and a wedding unfold nearby. At roughly 10:30 p.m., Sobhraj enters the restaurant, and the veteran officer says he recognized him instantly, marking a second, highly public arrest in the fugitive’s decades-long reign of crime.

The sensational Goa arrest helped cement Zende’s reputation as a fearless, fearless-in-the-field detective, earning him headlines such as “Zendabad” in Mumbai papers and drawing accolades from celebrities and the government alike. The real-life arc mirrors the film’s portrayal: Zende’s career had already included arresting Sobhraj in 1971 during a jewelry heist in Delhi, and the 1986 count added a second, high-profile victory. The officer’s work earned him the President’s Medal for Bravery, and he would later reflect on the case as a turning point that fused his early policing success with a late-career surge in national attention.

Sobhraj’s path after the Delhi prison escape stretched across several countries and decades. After his 1976 conviction in India, he spent another decade in prison before returning to France. In 2003, he was arrested in Nepal for the 1975 murders of an American and a Canadian and spent 19 years there before being released on age and good behavior in 2022, after which he was deported to France. In interviews, Zende has indicated that Sobhraj’s era of criminal activity eventually faded into history, and that the real measure of justice lay in the three-week Goa operation and the decades of law-and-order work that preceded it.

The Netflix project foregrounds the life of an Indian police officer at the center of a global chase, offering a different lens on a well-known international villain. It builds on the broader public fascination with Sobhraj, a figure whose notoriety has persisted through the decades in both media portrayals and true-crime accounts. The BBC Marathi coverage of Zende, including his reflections on the case and his updated account in Mumbai’s Most Wanted, provides verified context for the film’s narrative arc and timeline, while the production elevates a local police story into a cross-border crime drama that spans continents and decades.

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The film’s release has renewed public interest in Zende’s career and in the historical pursuit of Sobhraj, who became a symbol of both Cold War-era transnational crime and the challenges that police faced in tracking suspects across borders. It offers audiences a window into a three-week period that reshaped how Indian law enforcement was perceived on the world stage, while also highlighting the personal elements of policing that rarely find focus in larger, global crime narratives. For viewers familiar with The Serpent, the BBC-Netflix series that chronicled Sobhraj’s global crime spree, the new film adds a distinctly Indian perspective that centers on the local officers whose efforts kept pace with the international manhunt.

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As the story moves toward a close, the narrative emphasizes the era’s law-and-order dynamics: a daring jailbreak, a meticulous stakeout, and a climactic arrest that transformed a Mumbai officer into a national symbol of bravery. It also places Sobhraj within the broader arc of his decades-long pursuit, including his later imprisonments and the eventual diplomatic fallout surrounding his deportation and residence in France. The project thus functions as both a cinematic retelling and a historical ledger, carefully stitching together verified timelines with the human elements that defined the men who chased him.

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In summary, the Netflix drama elevates a relatively under-told episode of a global crime saga, centering on an Indian police officer whose two encounters with Sobhraj helped reframe a notorious chapter in cross-border crime and policing. By pairing Bajpayee’s portrayal of Zende with a faithful reconstruction of the 1986 Goa arrest, the film invites audiences to reassess the legacies of both the Bikini Killer and the men who pursued him, while confirming that some stories of police bravery endure long after headlines fade.