Mujra for the masses

Netflix has renewed Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s directorial web series Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar for a second season.

Within the first week of its May 1 launch, the series danced its way up the Netflix’s worldwide non-English TV chart in 43 countries, becoming the most-viewed Indian series for the streamer globally. Spanning 1920 through 1947, when the subcontinent was partitioned into India and Pakistan, Season 1 of the lavish story is set in the Heeramandi area of Lahore, British India, the milieu of the tawaifs. At the show’s center are Mallikajaan (Manisha Koirala), the scheming queen of Heeramandi, and her vindictive niece Fareedan (Sonakshi Sinha). Richa Chadha, Sanjeeda Shaikh, Aditi Rao Hydari, Fardeen Khan, Shekhar Suman, and Taha Shah Badussha also feature in it.

Bhansali said, “It takes a lot to make a series. This one has taken a lot. In Heeramandi 2, the women now come from Lahore to the film world. They leave Lahore after Partition and most of them settle in the Mumbai film industry or Kolkata film industry. They still have to dance and sing, but this time for the producers and not for the nawabs. That’s the second season we are planning, let’s see where it goes,” Bhansali added.