All you need to know about the K-Drama Signal, which inspired Raghav Juyal's Gyaarah Gyaarah

Raghav Juyal-Kritika Kamra-Dhairya Karwa's Gyaarah Gyaarah is scheduled to release on Zee5 and OTTplay Premium soon, but did you know that the series is actually an adaptation? That's right. Gyaarah Gyaarah is adapted from the K-Drama called Signal. Before Gyaarah Gyaarah releases, here's exploring what Signal was all about...

The story of Signal

Featuring Lee Je-hoon, Cho Jin-woong and Kim Hye-so in the lead roles, the series was about a murder case from the past being solved in the present. Park Hye-young (Je-hoon) comes across a walkie-talkie, where a cop from the past Jae-han (Jin-woong) gives him information about the kidnapping and murder involving Hye-young's former classmate. As they manage to solve this case, a team led by Detective Cha Soo-yoon (Hye-soo) is formed. She wants to find her mentor and unrequitted lover, Jae-han, who Soo-yoon has been searching for since the past 15 years. Unfortunately, as Hye-young and So-yoon solve more cases from the past, the present gets affected. The show explored if they could ever find Jae-han, who disappeared 15 years back, in 2000.

Signal itself was an adaptation of the US film, Frequency

Signal was adapted from the US film Frequency. Released in 2000, the story was about a father and son communicating through the walkie-talkie. It was after the father Frank died, and on his 30th death anniversary, that he connected with his son John, who is still heartbroken over losing his father to fire at the age of six. Knowing future events and those that lead to his father's death, John warns Frank on how to survive during a particular incident. With that, they change the future and John's memories of Frank too. Unfortunately, this time a serial killer survives and that leads to the death of John's mother. The movie was about whether John was successful in saving his father and consequently his own self in the changed timeline.

Signal was inspired by Hwaseong serial murders, what about Gyaarah Gyaarah?

Although the makers are likely to state that Gyaarah Gyaarah events are fictional, there are a lot of instances they could have taken a reference from, especially when it comes to a serial killer.

As for Signal, it was inspired by the Hwaseong serial murders by Lee Choon-jae. He would assault and eventually murder his victims, and his count remains 15 in four years, but the biggest mystery was that the case could not be solved for 30 long years. Choon-jae murdered his own sister-in-law, before being convicted for the killings in 2019. The Korean movie Memories of Murder is also loosely inspired from the very case.

Interestingly, Signal sequel was announced in March 2024. Thus, it is likely that Gyaarah Gyaarah will also end on a cliffhanger, thus giving us more to look forward to.