Charles Sobhraj release: Popular Movies and series inspired by the Bikini Killer’s serpentine character

Charles Gurumukh Sobhraj, notorious for his nefarious acts as a fraudster, thief is a French serial killer who preyed on Western tourists, travelling the hippie trail of South Asia during the 1970s and established a complete betrayal to humanity.

Nepal's Supreme Court on December 21 ordered the release of the bikini killer aka Charles Sobhraj portrayed in the Netflix series "The Serpent" who was responsible for a spree of killings around Asia in the 1970s.

The Supreme Court found that Sobhraj, 78, who has been imprisoned in the Himalayan republic since 2002 for the murder of two North American visitors, should be released on medical grounds.

"Keeping him in the prison continuously is not in line with the prisoner's human rights", read a copy of the verdict according to the reports.

There are many television series and movies have been made on the twisting, real-life story of Charles Sobhraj who is labelled as the seductive master of disguise. 

The Serpent

For decades, the dark and tragic story of Charles Sobhraj has been catnip for adaptations in novels, films, and television. Back in the free-wheeling 1970s, the notorious murderer preyed on Western tourists on the Hippie Trail in Asia. The Serpent, a Netflix original series, portrayed his reign of terror, his slithery evasion, and ultimate imprisonment. Tahar Rahim plays the evil Charles, and Jenna Coleman plays his accomplice, Marie-Andrè Leclerc, in the eight-part limited series.

Main aur Charles

Prawaal Raman wrote and directed the 2015 Bollywood crime film Main aur Charles, which was produced by Cynozure Networkz. The film is a hypothetical thriller inspired by actual facts; it is recounted from the perspective of an Indian cop, Amod Kanth, who handled the case of the bikini killer, Charles Sobhraj, of Indian origin. The film was released on October 30, 2015, to excellent reviews across India. However, it was a box office failure, generating just $80 million (US$1.25 million) against a budget of $100 million (US$1.56 million).

Randeep Hooda, Richa Chadda, Adil Hussain, Tisca Chopra, and Alexx O'Nell feature in the lead roles. The movie offers a sequence of crimes perpetrated by Charles as well as the stories of each of his victims, who fell for his magnetism but were misled by his serpentine character.

Sobhraj – Or How To Make Friends With A Serial Killer

This is a feature documentary on Charles Sobhraj directed by Jan Wellmaan and Anil Goel. The documentary provides Sobhraj’s life in Paris as a free man with a French passport, two wives, and two kids for seven years. Viewers labelled the movie as the best documentary that brings out the real story by talking to the right people.

The tragedy of Charles Sobhraj's life as a child during the Vietnam War, his father's desertion, his descent into crime and his trail of serial killings, his twenty years in an Indian jail, and his perilous arms-dealing lifestyle after his release make him the subject of an extreme drama of our time.