“Savdhaan rahiye, satark rahiye (Stay safe, stay alert),” boomed the voice of actor Anup Soni, reverberating on millions of television screens across India.
Back in 2011, when Soni began hosting Crime Patrol – a true crime television show that delves deep into real-life stories from across India – no one anticipated that a show that had largely unfavourable reviews until that point would become one of India’s longest-running obsessions. As true crime blew up as a genre around the world, so did Soni’s career.
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When he’d first gotten this offer, though, Soni had taken it merely as a side-hustle. The Mumbai-based actor thought it would give him consistent work as he waited to land major films. But the show took on cult status, and Soni became a household name. He went on to host more than 2,000 episodes of the show that won multiple local television awards. That’s not to say the show did not have majorly problematic elements, especially when it came to depicting women survivors of gender-based violence.
For Soni, though, Crime Patrol came with recognition, accolades and a myriad of memes. It also sparked his interest in investigating crimes in real life. So, when the world went on pause because of the pandemic, Soni decided to finally see through something he had grown an interest in.
Now, he’s a certified forensic crime scene investigator, having completed a short, 3-month course with the government-registered International Forensic Sciences (IFS) Education Department.
“This course teaches you how to effectively investigate a crime scene, which is the location where the crime takes place,” Soni told VICE. “The entire investigation can depend on how good a job the investigator does at this point, since the crime scene can tell you about why and how the crime was committed if you pay enough attention and ask the right questions.”
After Soni announced on Instagram that he had taken this course as a passion project during India’s devastating second wave of COVID-19, he immediately went viral, sparking a flurry of memes.
Through his course, Soni learnt about the nuances involved in investigating a crime scene.
“The course teaches you that you have to be alert and observant,” he said. “Like, if you find two glasses at the crime scene, it indicates that there are two suspects. If you find an ashtray, it means the suspect could be a smoker. The investigator’s role is the most important, since they have to instruct their team which areas to scan for fingerprints and tell the photographer what to capture. Crime scenes will have small changes with time, but the fingerprints and photographs become evidence later on.”
The course armed Soni to effectively carry out his own investigations if he chooses to continue. However, his initial brushes with criminal investigation weren’t from his course. It was from his time on Crime Patrol.
“Before we shot each episode, I would read all the research around the case,” Soni said. Since each Crime Patrol episode was a dramatic recreation of crimes including murder, fraud, domestic abuse and terrorist attacks, the production team would conduct extensive research that included poring over police records, legal documents, and background checks of the criminals they covered.
Soni’s role then was to break down the intricacies and emotions involved in committing a crime, and often shed a spotlight on the backstories and motivations of the criminals. Often, this would include social commentary, like addressing caste-based issues.
“With every case on the show, I became more aware of the small ways you can [identify crimes]. I began to understand the patterns [to find out] the modus operandi of a murder or theft and the motive of the criminal,” Soni said.
According to him, every domestic crime is motivated by any of these four emotions: greed, frustration, anger and jealousy. “[Through the show] I learnt to sense when someone was lying, and it has made me more alert,” said Soni.
Fraudsters have made multiple attempts to lure him into faulty financial schemes, Soni said, but his familiarity with such cases helped him instantly realise when he was being taken for a ride.
“One lesson I’ve learnt is that if anything sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
Prior to his acting career, Soni was a law student with an inclination towards criminal prosecution, but his foray into acting made him shift focus. “At that time, it was not easy to become a professional actor, because I did not come from a family that had connections or a network. I think my education as a lawyer did help me connect with [this show] more.”
Narrating thousands of stories of how people can go from living their day-to-day life to pulling off twisted acts of vengeance and violence also helped Soni find a pattern in local crimes.
“In India, there are lots of crimes of passion, which is a terminology in criminal science that means you have done it [the crime] out of love,” he said. He added that as he familiarised himself with case details, he came across many cases where married couples who fell out of love resorted to murder or extortion.
“These kinds of cases really affected me,” he said.
While giving play-by-play descriptions of criminal behaviour allowed Soni to raise awareness about the sort of crimes happening in India and how viewers could be more careful, it also took a toll on his mental health.
“While we did do some serial killer stories, a majority of the crimes we covered were committed by ordinary people like you and me,” he said. “Initially, it affected me a lot, and I would get depressed thinking about what made people do [terrible] things.”
Although Soni initially grappled with the emotional overload of becoming invested in criminal cases, he also learnt how to overcome those feelings to make each case a learning experience.
“Even though I quit the show in 2018, I had no idea it would help me become so popular. But I wanted to get back to my acting career and focus on films.”
Taking a step back from the world of gruesome and gritty crimes, Soni soon realised how his role in the television show impacted his image.
“Since I was the host, I became a trustworthy source raising awareness for people. This made many directors assume that I would not work as a villain, and I continued to be offered [good guy] roles. I had to change my whole look, grow a beard and spend a lot of time convincing them to let me show range as an actor.”
Prior to his time on Crime Patrol, he played the role of a police inspector in yet another cult-favourite true crime fiction show, C.I.D.
Today, Soni plays a villain in the Netflix film Class of ’83 as well as in the Amazon Prime political drama Tandav. His focus remains on films and web series rather than becoming a full-fledged criminal investigator.
For Soni, though, the two worlds seem to inevitably collide.
“The course helped me better understand the body language and methodology of an investigator character in a film or series,” he said. “People thought I joined the police department or something. That was not the case. Some people like to play the guitar as a hobby. I like to learn about criminal investigations.”
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