Mitra, director of operations for Mid Day, approached Kashyap with the book and wanted him to write a television series based on it for the Aaj Tak TV news channel.

The film's soundtrack album and the background score were composed by the band Indian Ocean, while the lyrics were written by Piyush Mishra.

Black Friday premiered at the 2004 Locarno International Film Festival and was supposed to be released the same year in India.

However, after a petition filed by a group accused of the 1993 bomb blasts challenging the film's release, the Bombay High Court issued a stay.

On 9 March 1993, a small-time thug, Gul Mohammed, is detained at the Nav Pada police station in Bombay and confesses to a conspiracy underway to bomb major locations around the city.

The police dismiss his confession as a bluff, and three days later, a series of explosions take place in the city, leaving 257 dead and close to 1400 injured.

Investigators discover the bombs, made of RDX, were smuggled into the city with the aid of customs officials and the border police.

The persecution of Muslim minorities in the riots leads to a meeting of underworld leaders in Dubai who take it upon themselves to seek retribution.

Following the blast, accomplices to the crime are forced to lead a life of anonymity and secrecy as it becomes evident the Mumbai police have begun picking up the suspects one by one.

Tired of being let down by his own people and without a place to hide, Badshah Khan realises there is no justification for his acts and decides to become a police witness.

In a candid Newstrack interview on national television, Yaqub states that it was Tiger and his underworld associates who orchestrated the conspiracy.

[2] Anurag Kashyap's feature film directorial debut Paanch ran into censorship trouble and had been shelved when Arindam Mitra, director of operations for Mid-Day, approached him with the book Black Friday: The True Story of the Bombay Bomb Blasts written by Hussain Zaidi, their chief crime correspondent.

[4] Kashyap shot at Behrampura, the site where the actual bomb was planted, using two hidden cameras, while the crew used walkie-talkies to communicate to avoid attracting a crowd.

[10] The band Indian Ocean composed the soundtrack album and the background score, while Piyush Mishra wrote the lyrics.

"[23] Prithiviraj Hegde of Rediff.com noted: "While the film stays true as a dark, brooding, evil tale, it is told with a droll, dry humour that brings a smile even as the protagonists head toward their final unforgiving denouement.

"[24] Anupama Chopra said the film had "several memorable sequences" but felt it was "static" as the screenplay does not allow the "characters to evolve or engage".

"[27] Deepa Gahlot of Sify called it a "fabulously crafted and superbly enacted film, but not stark enough to be documentary and not fictional enough to be a feature".

[29] Baradwaj Rangan mentioned in his review that the film is a series of "superbly-orchestrated sequences" saying the "only thing you could fault it for is that it doesn't know when to stop".

[32] Khalid Mohamed called the film "defiantly uncompromising" and Kashyap's direction "unbelievably mature and searching".

[10] Among overseas critics, Matt Zoller Seitz of The New York Times described the film as "epic and raw, and cut out from the same bloody cloth as Salvador and Munich".

[34] The Hollywood Reporter's Kirk Honeycutt compared the film's "journalistic inquiry into cataclysmic social and political events" to that of Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers.

[37] Ethan Alter of Film Journal International called it "a potent reminder that Indian filmmaking isn't limited to Bollywood super-productions".

"[39] A review carried by Time Out called the film a "post-9/11 food for thought and a vivid reminder not to get arrested in India, where the prisoners' bill of rights is very short".

[45] Danny Boyle cited Black Friday as an inspiration for his 2008 Academy award-winning film Slumdog Millionaire.

[46] In 2014 filmmaker Vikramaditya Motwane, when asked about the most important films in last decade, replied Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006) and Black Friday.