The debate about which city feels safer for women - Delhi or Mumbai - has been around for years. Ask anyone who has lived in both, and you'll likely get passionate responses on either side.
For many women, including those who travel frequently for work, the difference feels stark.
In Delhi, the roads empty out early and a sense of unease creeps in after dark. In Mumbai, on the other hand, there's a certain comfort in knowing the city doesn't sleep.
With Delhi Crime 3 releasing on November 13, the cast of the Emmy-winning series - Shefali Shah, Rasika Dugal, and Sayani Gupta - opened up about their own experiences with safety and what this long-standing comparison between Delhi and Mumbai really means.
Shefali Shah, who returns as DCP Vartika Chaturvedi, admits she has never felt comfortable stepping out in Delhi. "I don't go out and I swear I am not exaggerating, unless I am shooting, which means my team and the car.
"Whenever I am in Delhi, one of my very close friends stays there. If I have a gap and she says let's go out for dinner. I am like no. I don't think there is a single time I have stepped out with her for dinner. She lives in Delhi. (It's like) 'You come here or I'll come there'," she told NDTV in an exclusive interview.
Sayani Gupta, who studied and lived in Delhi, recalls how fearlessness comes easily when you're young-but hindsight changes that perspective.
"We (Rasika and her) have lived in Delhi. We have studied in Delhi. We did things... Now when I look back at that 18-year-old I am like, 'Was she mad? Why was she walking around Pragati Maidan'...
"I was 20, I was working, probably coming back from a conference or something. But when you are young you are braver. And also, I think there was something protecting me because I have never had a bad experience in Delhi. I used to wear backless clothes on DTC buses, nothing happened," she added.
The actor recalled having "bad experiences in Kolkata and Mumbai".
"But having said that Mumbai is the safest city to live in for women. It is a city where we can live and work and we don't have to think about where we are going, at what time and what we are wearing. Nobody is looking at you; nobody is interested. Everybody is trying to hustle. I feel, in Delhi, I land at the airport and there is a breeze of aggression," Sayani Gupta said.
For Rasika Dugal, the discomfort in Delhi during her college years still lingers.
"I have lived in Delhi as a young college going student and it wasn't the most fun experience. I always had to watch my back and I still sort of hold it against the city maybe because that was the time for me to really be out there and party and do whatever I wanted but those were the opportunities we didn't have because of the narrative constructed around the city about how it's really unsafe for women. And sometimes that narrative feeds into itself and I just feel that cities are constructed differently. It's not about the attitude of the people living in it but it's really about how a city functions," she said.
The actor added that Mumbai's sense of safety may have more to do with its infrastructure than its people.
"Like Mumbai seems to be a safe place because there are always eyes on the road. A city that sleeps late, there is a public transportation system which is efficient so there are always people out there. If this city was a city that functioned differently, I wonder if it would have been a safer place," said Rasika Dugal, who reprises her role of IPS Neeti Singh in Delhi Crime 3.
Shefali Shah, however, insists that crime isn't exclusive to one city.
"Also, it's not that these crimes happen only in Delhi. It happens across the globe, sadly so. Yes, it's called Delhi Crime but sadly these cases did initiate (in Delhi). But, for example, Delhi Crime 3 is not just Delhi, the nexus is spread across the country... The bad guys are just spreading it like COVID," she said.
She added, "What happens in Delhi a lot of time is... you meet people who say, we love your work. They are like this," she gestures, putting a hand around the neck. "They like to touch, they will hold. They don't have this thing of respecting the sense of privacy. Now the right person doing it is great but the wrong person doing it can go really off."
Perhaps that's where the real difference lies - not just in infrastructure or policing, but in invisible boundaries of comfort and respect. And as Delhi Crime 3 reminds us, safety isn't defined by a city's name, but by how we build and navigate our spaces within it.
Also starring Huma Qureshi, Delhi Crime 3 takes on the disturbing and urgent issue of human trafficking. The latest season of the critically-acclaimed web series, directed by Tanuj Chopra, will stream on Netflix from November 13.
