Bhansali to recreate Lahore in Mumbai

On Sep 15, 2021

Sanjay Leela Bhansali will recreate Lahore from the pre-partition era in a Film City studio in Mumbai for his upcoming show ‘Heeramandi’. Bhansali is in his final stage of casting and plans to shoot for the show from the month of November. SLB’s new web series will also see Manisha Koirala working with the director after 25 years.

Manisha Koirala will be one of the main leads in the period web series. The two worked together in ‘Khamoshi’ in 1996, which was a highly appreciated film.

The other names that are doing the rounds for this show are Aditi Rao Hydari and Sonakshi Sinha. The story is set in Lahore and tells us the tale of three generations of tawaifs (courtesans). Written by Moin Beg and directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali the casting for a lot of characters is still underway. The show will have Subrat Chakraborty who was the art director of ‘Padmaavat’ who will design the set for ‘Heeramandi’ too.

SLB had been planning to make this as a film in the past and had reportedly offered Priyanka Chopra to play the main lead, which she had turned down citing date issues. Some of the others names that were being speculated to feature in the project were Madhuri Dixit, Rekha, Tabu and Shabana Azmi, too.

The show will explore stories of courtesans and the hidden cultural reality of Heera mandi, a dazzling district, during pre-independent India. It’s a series about love, betrayal, succession and politics in the kothas which promises Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s trademark larger-than-life sets, multi-faceted characters and soulful compositions.

Filmfare