Raat Akeli Hai: The Bansal Murders, is directed by Honey Trehan, and since the trailer came out, there has been a lot of speculation about the film being inspired by certain real-life events. Well, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that the film draws inspiration from multiple real-life events, but it is not entirely based on a singular case or incident. I personally believe the makers researched some real-life cases, used them as the foundation of their story, and then took creative liberties to weave these elements together into a fictional narrative. There was a scene in the film where a news channel reporting on the Bansal Murders stated that the incident bore a close resemblance to the Burari Murders (the real-life case that happened on the 1st of July 2018), which shook the national capital of India, and to date it is one of the most chilling crimes to have ever been committed. Apart from that, there have been cases of gas leaks in various parts of India that could have served as an inspiration for Smita Singh, the writer of the film. So let’s discuss the real-life cases that could have been a source of inspiration for Raat Akeli Hai: The Bansal Murders and try to spot the similarities and differences.
Burari Murders
We have to talk about the Burari murders because, as stated earlier, the film itself mentions them at the beginning. On 1st July 2018, 11 members of the Chundawat family were found hanging from their ceiling at their home in Sant Nagar, Burari. It seemed like a mass suicide at first, but then the investigation team uncovered certain dark secrets about the family and how they were manipulated into taking their own lives by one of their family members, Lalit Chundawat. Lalit was suffering from various mental health disorders, and he somehow managed to make his family believe that he could see his late father in real life and, in fact, he could talk to his spirit. Lalit had managed to convince his family members that if they conducted rituals (the steps of which he documented and detailed in the multiple registers that were found at the home), then his father would save them and they wouldn’t die. But obviously, they weren’t saved by the spirit and so ended up losing their lives. There were some who believed that the family was in touch with an occultist or a spiritual guru, something similar to what’s shown in the Netflix film.
Now, the culprit in the Bansal Murders (in the film) was a man named Om Prakash, who used to work for the family. The man wanted to take revenge on the family, as his daughter had died in a gas leak at a rubber manufacturing company that was owned by the Bansal family. We will talk about the gas leak in the next heading, but the reason he planned the murder in that manner was to mislead law enforcement and make it look like a ritualistic killing. One possibility could have been that Om Prakash knew that the power of attorney of the rubber manufacturing company was with Guru Ma, because of which he wanted to implicate her by making it look like the family had acted on her orders. Another possibility is that he didn’t know about her involvement, and he just planned the murder so that the blame didn’t come on him. I think by killing the crows, Om Prakash wanted the investigating officers to believe that the people of the Bansal family believed in black magic, since the horrific incident of Burari was so fresh in everybody’s minds. I wouldn’t deny that in the first few minutes even I felt that the character of Meera had conspired with Guru Ma and killed her family members because she, too, just like Lalit, believed that salvation could be found when the soul leaves the body. In fact, there is a scene where she even says after the incident that all her family members had been liberated from the mortal realm, and their spirits could now transcend into another realm. She tells Jatil Yadav (the investigating officer who was in-charge of the Bansal case) that today’s generations do not understand the fact that pain is an inevitable part of life. Even though Meera might not have directly been involved in the crime, it is difficult to not see the similarities between her and Lalit Chundawat’s beliefs and ideologies. Meera, just like Lalit, suffered from acute PTSD. In Lalit’s case, the death of his father, combined with an incident where he was assaulted, was speculated to be the cause behind it, and in Meera’s case it was the tragic death of her son. Apart from the above-mentioned speculations and facts, I don’t think that the film bore any particular resemblance to the Burari Murders.
LG Polymers Gas Leak
A tragic incident occurred on 7th May 2020, when there was a gas leak at the South Korean-owned company named LG Polymers that took the lives of 15 people and injured hundreds of others who lived in and around the area. The company was based in Vishakhapatnam, and after an official inquiry was conducted, the CEO of the company, named Sunkey Jeong, and the technical director, DS Kim, together with around 10 employees, were held liable for the incident. Two employees from the state pollution control board were also found responsible in the case and later suspended. Now, considering the gas leak killed many people and that there was a South Korean company involved, I felt that this real-life incident might have been a source of inspiration for the Netflix film. In the Vishakapatanam case, poor tank quality, less stringent regulation, a fault in the circulation channel, and negligence on the part of the company employee were a few reasons behind the gas leak.
In the case of the film, I believe that the influence the Bansal family had in the area also played a significant role in making sure that the truth never came out in the open. Also, one difference was that in the film, only kids lost their lives, since they all were in that classroom where the gas leak happened, but I don’t think that was the case in the LG Polymers case. But I believe apart from the similarities and differences in the basic facts, both incidents (the fictional and the real) brought certain harsh realities of society to light. In a capitalist society, a poor man’s life doesn’t amount to anything. If slum dwellers lose their lives, nobody seems to really care; if their homes are destroyed, then nobody hears their cries. And the prime reason behind it is in such a society they are considered liabilities. The regime does not benefit from their existence, and so it is easy to sideline their interests in the name of development and progress.
Other cases of gas leaks
Apart from the LG Polymers case, several gas leak cases over the decades have exposed the state’s failure to enforce strict safety regulations on private companies. And there is just one reason behind why this does not happen: it’s because both private and government parties are reluctant to invest in infrastructure for hazardous waste management, spend revenue to enforce emergency protocols, and create a specialized crisis response team. Just like Baxim Polymers, the company owned by the Bansal family in the film, a sugar mill, in 2017 was found guilty of discharging hazardous waste near a private school in Shamli. Due to the poisonous gases, the students suffered from stomach aches and nausea, and the incident got a lot of attention in the media too. Similarly, on 20th November 2025, there was a gas leak in the science lab of a school named Lions Public School in Hardoi, though as per reports, the children were given immediate medical attention, and there were no casualties as such.
Was Guru Ma based on a real-life character?
Though the character of Guru Ma was not based on any specific person, we all have seen various self-proclaimed religious leaders who have been found guilty of conducting scams and frauds throughout the world. Making claims about having the power to spiritually heal a person and playing with the faith of innocent people, these godmen have always existed. We’ve all seen religious leaders amass vast fortunes, running trusts worth billions of dollars, yet still continuing to present themselves as humble messengers of God, claiming that their existence on earth is solely for the sake of social welfare. So yes, I do think all these fraudsters served as a source of inspiration behind the creation of Guru Ma’s character. One thing that differentiated her from an average conwoman was the fact that she had really powerful people backing her up, and her game, I believe, was much bigger than anybody understood. She had established a so-called ashram in South Korea, and so I believe she had some sort of illicit business running there too.
