The Hunt - The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case gets near perfect score except with Bengaluru chapter
Kannada audiences irked at butchered Kannada pronunciations; wonder why language was not used in Bengaluru portions. Cyanide recommended as better watch
Last Updated: 09.38 PM, Jul 15, 2025
Nagesh Kukunoor’s 7-part web series, The Hunt – The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination case, has been receiving praise galore ever since it dropped on Sony LIV. From factual authenticity to its great casting, by and large, audiences have had nothing but good things to say about the show, ever since it came out on July 4, 205. The show focuses on the 90-days following the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi at an election rally in Sriperumbudur, culminating in the death of the masterminds of the operation at a house in Bengaluru.
Episode 6 and 7 of the show focus on the events that played out in Bengaluru, including futile raids in Indiranagar and other areas, as well as the tussle between different agencies about the chain of command and operational authority. While the show’s dialogues are majorly in Hindi and Tamil, given that the main conspirators were LTTE operatives or sympathisers, what audiences in Karnataka have pointed out is that the Bengaluru portions do not include Kannada dialogues. The stray line that is heard spoken is awfully mispronounced as well. For a show that seemingly paid close attention to detail, this is quite a miss, they say.
Also read: AMR Ramesh’s Cyanide prequel to focus on the 90 days leading to Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination
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Why is there no Kannada in Bengaluru?
Audiences have pointed out that the depiction of Konankunte, as this dry and arid area is also faulty. Amid all of this, there have been suggestions that the better depiction of the Bengaluru operation to capture Sivarasan and gang is in the 2006 Kannada-Tamil bilingual Cyanide/Kuppi, directed by AMR Ramesh. Cyanide focused exclusively on the 20 days of the operation to hunt and capture Sivarasan in Bengaluru.
The film won a Karnataka state film award, while Tara, who played Mridula, the wife of Ranganath, who sheltered the LTTE operatives in Bengaluru. “Binge watchd #TheHunt, grt research, on dot casting,gripping,all ok,bt #bengaluru chapter of #sivarasan hidin, #kannada &the treatment overall, disappointd. #Cyanide holds upperhand in this,cult classic, @AMRRamesh &team, kickass #film,” wrote one, while another added, “i would confidently say that a #Kannada movie named #Cyanide was made on the same subject and brilliantly made. It kept the audience at the age of the seat.”