The Serpent slithering through the Hippie Trail

Express Tribune

02-03-2025

Having completely missed his real-life rampage across continents in the 1970s, murdering women in bikinis, and men with the women in bikinis, because I was still playing with Mattel dolls, I first learned about Charles Sobhraj in Vikramaditya Motwane's Black Warrant (2024).
Decades later in 2021, Netflix aired The Serpent about Sobhraj, but I hadn't subscribed to the streamer yet. Now that I do and with AI in constant competition with my guardian angel, the former sniffed out my interest in true crime and Sidhant Gupta [the actor who played Sobhraj in Black Warrant], and diligently pulled the series out as a recommendation for me on Netflix. Slave to my AI recommendations, and a wee bit curious about Sobhraj, I began watching The Serpent.
Born Hotchand Bhawnani Gurmukh Sobhraj on April 6, 1944 in Saigon, French Indochina, to an Indian father and Vietnamese mother, Charles Sobhraj is a French serial killer, fraudster, and thief who came to be known as the Serpent. Presently, an octogenarian and a free man, during the 70s, he preyed on Western tourists travelling on the hippie trail of South Asia, giving the police of several countries and the Interpol a hard time.
He was known as the Serpent because he carried on like one. Remember Ka, the snake in Jungle Book? He slid and slithered all around the gullible Mowgli, pretending to care for him, all because he wanted to devour him. This is exactly how Sobhraj operated. He got his prey to trust him so he could get close to them and kill them for their passports and money. Like a reptile, he was fabulous at changing appearances and identities especially supported by robbed passports. Sobhraj was also known as the Bikini Killer, for most of his victims were found clad in bikinis.
In Black Warrant, Gupta played Sobhraj, although it was a small but powerful character with a stylish and rather enigmatic vibe. While Motwane has been accused of glamourising a killer in the film, Sobhraj's portrayal in the Netflix/BBC series is perhaps closer to the truth.
Played by Tahar Rahim, a French actor of Algerian origin, Sobhraj is depicted as someone who can easily win people over with his charisma and charm, making him appear friendly and trustworthy, which he then uses to manipulate and exploit his victims. Why didn't any of his victims feel a chilling, creepy feel around him or maybe his tall, lanky figure in 70's flared denims, longish hair and oversized, square shades tricked them into mistaking him for a normal fellow.
Has Sobhraj watched the series that he knew was under production? What did he feel on seeing his ruthless life exposed to the world?
'We are going to sue Netflix and BBC for The Serpent because they have made the series on the basis that I've been convicted in Nepal in two murder cases, therefore I am a serial killer,' Sobhraj, forever in denial, told Al Jazeera, in an August 2023 interview, not long after his release from prison in Nepal, after 19 years. Nepal's Supreme Court ordered his release due to his age.
This wasn't first time he had gone to jail though. Thailand had issued a warrant for his arrest in the mid-1970s on charges of drugging and killing six women on a beach in Pattaya, but before he could stand trial on those charges, he was jailed in India for 21 years on murder charges. He escaped from prison in the mid-1980s, but was caught and returned to jail until 1997. Sobhraj returned to France after being released from jail in India. But in 2003, he was arrested at a casino in Kathmandu and convicted of murdering American backpacker Connie Jo Bronzich.
Watching The Serpent reminds you of what a breeze travelling was in those trusting times of the seventies. There were no mobile phones, no internet, nor computerised passports which made it all so easy for the mastermind Sobhraj to forge documents, visas and passports. In today's world, police would find it easier to track him through his digital footprint.
From the mid-1950s to the late 1970s, the hippie trail was a popular overland route for young people from the West to travel to South Asia. It was a form of alternative tourism that involved travelling cheaply and exploring foreign cultures. These young people would escape their daily lives for fun but the trail was dangerous as it included drugs. They travelled on foot, by bus, by car, van, fire trucks and double-decker buses through Kabul, Kathmandu, Goa, Thailand, Indonesia, and Australia. The 'Dum Maro Dum' culture was endlessly glamourised in Indian and Pakistani films!
True-crime tales of serial killers seemed to have become a popular genre of late. There is a mix of awe, curiosity, fear play or thrill-seeking that audiences are looking for. Set in 1970s' Bangkok, the series follows Dutch diplomat Herman Knippenberg (Billy Howle) as he investigates the disappearance of a pair of Dutch backpackers. His pursuit leads him to Sobhraj (Tahar Rahim) and his accomplices, including his girlfriend Marie-Andrée Leclerc (Jenna Coleman) and Ajay Chowdhury (Amesh Edireweera).
The series shows how Sobhraj cashed in on the vulnerability of these young travellers who were oblivious to his schemes. With his pretty, young girlfriend on his arm, he maintained the façade of a well-to-do gems dealer, a charismatic and caring man who went out of the way to help people. And people fell for it instantly. They entertained and frequented bars. They couple had a pet dog and monkey which were ofcourse a part of the façade Sobhraj maintained to appear as ordinary people. It is said that the audiences in UK were horrified to see the poor monkey consume some concoction that had been prepared to debilitate an Italian man Renelleau — he dropped dead in no time.
Writer and producer Richard Warlow began working on the series in 2013 alongside director Tom Shankland and co-producer Paul Testar, who worked closely with Knippenberg and got access to the files on Sobhraj, the killer's former neighbour Nadine Gires; his captive employee Dominique Renelleau (whose escape from Sobhraj is documented in the series); and Interpol's Lt Col Sompol Suthimai. The production team also had access to hours of taped interviews with Sobhraj.
'I tried to track down every single person who features in the story, or their surviving relatives if they're no longer alive,' says Testar. 'Building that research to be as huge as possible so we could draw tiny, fine details in the story that become really important, and be truthful about them and make sure we're telling it accurately.'
A few of the people involved were made into characters for dramatic effect, a fictional character of British hippie backpacker Celia was added, and the dialogue is imagined. "But eighty to 90 percent of the series is accurate," says Testar. 'I don't think any of it is historically untrue. It was more a case of leaving stuff out.'
Testar chose not to speak to Sobhraj directly. "We had access to the tapes and we avoided speaking to him because he is a compulsive liar." Interestingly, Sobhraj was constantly trying to monetise himself and his story, but the production team was adamant not to pay him.
The Serpent is a story about a villain, but the hero is Herman Knippenberg, a youngish member of the Dutch Consulate, who could not rest because two Dutch citizens had mysteriously disappeared and he could get no help from the local police or authorities of any kind.
The first episode takes time to hook you. Throughout the series, the timeline shifts back and forth and events are not shown in chronological order which can be a tad annoying. But the writers, Warlow and Toby Finlay worked hard on getting things smoothed out so that a logical timeline is maintained for the audience. Loads of characters come and go but story really boils down to Charles and Marie, the criminal couple, and Herman and Angela, the couple chasing them.
The series doesn't portray all the deaths and the total number of Sobhraj's victims remains unknown. Not all the victims included in series show up under their real names, because of requests from surviving family members. For instance, Sobhraj's first wife and daughter have fictional names in The Serpent to protect their identities.
'Sobhraj has been very good about building a false narrative about the people he's alleged to have killed,' Warlow says. 'And that false narrative pretty much goes 'They're druggies, criminal scumbags, and you shouldn't care about them.'
In the series, Sobhraj was shown walking down and driving through the streets of Karachi. A Pakistan Today report from November 2023 shows that Punjab police arrested Charles Sobhraj from Italy after issuing a red notice from Interpol. He operated as Abrar and was accused of killing two people in Gujranwala in 2006.
The Serpent is a well-made series, one that will be enjoyed by audiences who lived in the 70s or who grew up and travelled around that period. Some of us might even have been close to an exploitation like Sobhraj's. Maybe it is because of people like him that we travel with so much caution around passports, visas, and documents that can be forged.
Tahar Rahim as the creepy, bloodthirsty Sobhraj is epic. Watching a smug, ruthless serial killer who murdered 12 or 20 people and almost got away with it, you feel for the central figure Knippenberg who nearly destroyed his relationship with his wife Angela and his career as a Dutch diplomat while chasing this slithery killer.
As in all productions depicting the 70s, the characters smoke a lot and I wondered if the actors smoked herbal cigarettes instead of real ones as in the AMC drama Mad Men.
What drives people like Sobhraj, and what goes on his mind when he methodically poisons people or burns them, strangulates or drowns bodies; or when he partakes his breakfast of black coffee and delicatessen in Nepal after his release (Al-Jazeera, August 2023). Parting note, it beats me why in the coastal Indian state of Goa, a statue of Sobhraj sits on the balcony of O'Coqueiro, the restaurant where he was arrested in 1986. Next we'll hear of a ritual around it!