Upamanyu Biswas
Directed by Aditya Nimbalkar, ‘Sector 36’ tells the story of a serial murder case in the backwaters of Noida, Uttar Pradesh, in India. After a number of missing children are reported at the local police station, SI Ram Charan Pandey has to embark on an investigation that uncovers dark secrets lurking underneath the city’s foundations. However, the victims of the cases of abduction and murder hail from a slum area in Noida known as Rajiv Camp. The impoverished region becomes a horror-filled setting owing to the number of children and young women who wind up dead at the hands of Prem Singh, the elusive serial killer of the story! SPOILERS AHEAD.
Rajiv Camp is a Fictional Slum on the Outskirts of Noida
The Rajiv Camp in ‘Sector 36′ is a fictional community inspired by Nithari village in Noida. In the movie, it is depicted as the hunting ground for serial killer Prem Singh, a helper of Balbir Singh Bassi, in house B5, which is situated just outside Rajiv Camp. The area is primarily inhabited by slums and a less well-to-do population. When the children from Rajiv Camp start going missing, the local authorities, like SI Ram Charan Pandey, pay no heed to the complaints of the victims’ parents. The police are under the impression that children from Rajiv Camp go missing all the time because of runaway tendencies. Hence, they classify the missing reports as cases of self-harm rather than things to worry about. However, this proves to be wrong as it is the primary place from which Prem Singh abducts kids and murders them.
Although Rajiv Camp may be largely fictional, the movie’s real-life inspiration – the Nithari Killings of 2006 – sheds some light on the slum area’s original roots. According to the actual events, one of the accused perpetrators of the murders, Surinder Koli, allegedly targeted children from the Nithari village slums. These areas were situated just around the residence where Koli worked for a businessman named Moninder Singh Pandher. Therefore, the Rajiv Camp depicted in the movie can be seen as a representation of the Nithari slums from the real case that inspired the Vikrant Massey-starrer. Parents of several children reported their kids going missing from Nithari village for a long time before the police allegedly took any notice, which is similar to how it plays out in the film.
Ultimately, the intriguing aspect of the Rajiv Camp setting is its proximity to house B5, where Prem Singh works. Its closeness allows the house helper to walk out into the slum regions under cover of night and abduct several kids. The body parts of some of the dead victims are even left swimming in the drains outside the house, which are eventually discovered by the authorities. However, the locale also allows the movie to probe into themes of social injustice and class disparity as it showcases the abject conditions under which the children of Rajiv Camp grow up. Meanwhile, just across the wall from Rajiv Camp, people live in luxury and depravity in house B5. Despite its real-life links and loose ties to the events of the Nithari Killings, the area is a fictional construction that does not exist in reality.
Read More: Is Sector 36 a True Story? Is Prem Singh Based on a Real Serial Killer?
