As the desi audience is still obsessing over Heeramandi even after a month of its release, filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali announced on Sunday night tha the show is all set to be renewed for a second season. The announcement was made at Carter Road in Bandra on Sunday evening with a flash mob of 100 dancers dancing to the songs of the magnum opus.
Bhansali shared that Heeramandi 2 will tell the tale of the women of Lahore in the post-partition era and how they will struggle to find a footing in the film industries of Mumbai and Kolkata.
"That journey in the bazaar remains the same. They still have to dance and sing, but this time for the producers and not for the nawabs," Bhansali revealed.
Bhansali also said that making a web series "takes a lot" and that he has worked on Heeramandi without a break.
Heeramandi released on Netflix on May 1 and it starred Manisha Koirala, Sonakshi Sinha, Aditi Rao Hydari, Richa Chadha, Sharmin Segal and Sanjeeda Sheikh in lead roles. The show tells the tale of courtesans in pre-partition Lahore and their fight for power as well as their contribution to the Indian freedom struggle.
Post its release, the show received mixed response from the audience, as a section of the internet felt that Bhansali had romanticised the lives of tawaifs in Heeramandi much beyond what the reality was.
On the other hand, Bhansali also found his name dragged into the nepotism debate as his niece, actress Sharmin Segal, failed to impress the audience with her below-par acting chops.
However, Bhansali justified casting her and stated that she was the perfect choice to play the role of a young and naive Alamzeb.
