Published 22 Sep 2026
Parts
35 
Time
93 min It began with a single word.
During a Supreme Court hearing, the Chief Justice compared protesting students to "cockroaches." The remark lasted only moments. The internet made sure it didn't.
Students reclaimed the insult. Memes became posters. Posters became slogans. Slogans became a movement.
Within days, Jantar Mantar filled with thousands of young people carrying the Constitution, waving the tricolour and demanding to be heard. Hunger strikes, marches to Parliament, police barricades, tear gas, lathi charges and primetime television turned a student protest into a national story.
Cockroaches traces that journey in real time. Built from court proceedings, public records, news reports, speeches, photographs and eyewitness accounts, it reconstructs how one remark grew into India's biggest youth movement—and how the battle for the narrative became as important as the battle on the streets.
Chapters
***
Jantar Mantar
Observed
Sanjay Dubey
Cockroaches
Abhijeet Dipke
The Tweet
The Joke gets serious
Offline
Saurav Das & Ashutosh Ranka
Press Conference
The Return
The Protest
The Idiot
The Fast
The Removal
Ten Minutes
Break fast
Swarm
The Minister
We have done it!!
Trailer
Cockroaches
Season Two
The Headline
New
Gyanesh
New
Jail Bharo
New
Gandhi Jayanti
New
Run Neha Run
New
From Germany
New
Can cockroaches fly
New
Death
New
The Flag
New
Tihar Jail
New
Notes from the Waiting Room
New
