On October 31, 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards. Over the next few days several hundred Sikh men, women and children were killed in Delhi and other places in northern India.

On February 27, 2002, a coach of the Sabarmati Express was set on fire at Godhra railway station in Gujarat, killing 58 Hindu pilgrims. Over the next two months several hundred men, women and children were killed in retaliatory anti-Muslim riots in the state.

'Kaya Taran' (Chrysalis) is set against the backdrop of the two riots, but does not frontally engage with either. It is a distanced look at the dilemma of nurturing one's identity in a multicultural society that borders on the volatile.