After debuting two original series from acclaimed international auteurs already this year — Nicolas Winding Refn’s Copenhagen Cowboy and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House — Netflix on Saturday unveiled the first look at Indian director Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s upcoming period drama, Heeramandi. At a grand event in Mumbai, Bhansali spoke with Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, and spoke about what audiences around the world can expect from the eight-episode series, which also serves as his streaming debut.
Bhansali is best known for his lavish musical dramas, including the BAFTA nominated Devdas. His last feature film was Gangubai Kathiawadi, which briefly attracted international awards buzz last year. Heeramandi is in many ways a spiritual follow-up to Gangubai Kathiawadi, a period drama set in Mumbai’s red-light district. The film traced the life of the titular brothel madame-turned-politician, who fought for the rights of sex workers in her district.
Heeramandi will tell the stories of several courtesans who operated out of a similar district in pre-independence India, in the city of Lahore, which is now in Pakistan. The teaser that was revealed at Saturday’s event doesn’t contain any footage from the show, but introduces the all-female central cast one by one, in opulent profile shots. We see actors Manisha Koirala, Sonakshi Sinha, Aditi Rao Hydari, Richa Chadha, Sharmin Segal and Sanjeeda Shaikh gazing directly at the camera, wearing traditional yellow outfits and ornate jewelry. “Sanjay Leela Bhansali invites you the world where courtesans were queens,” reads the text in the background, as we get a glimpse at the show’s title treatment.
The teaser ends with a shot of the entire ensemble posing together, as the words “coming soon” flash underneath the title. At the event, Sarandos compared Bhansali to fellow maximalist filmmaker Baz Luhrmann, said that it was the “honor of a lifetime” to work with him. Bhansali shared more details about the show, according to a Deadline report, and teased that this is the grandest project that he has ever put together. In his own words:
“These were courtesans, who behind their veils they felt so much pain, and yet they will come in the evening and sing and dance. They pleased those men, they entertained those men, and then they went back to their dark world… Shifting to digital, I’ve made it even bigger. Heeramandi is the biggest project that I’ve made, it’s so huge in scale. I had to do something special… to make him [Sarandos] proud.”
Western audiences that got a taste of mainstream Indian cinema with S.S. Rajamouli‘s RRR last year will find Bhansali’s equally larger-than-life movies right up their alley. The filmmaker’s best-known recent work is a trilogy of period films — Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela, Bajirao Mastani and Padmavat — starring the real-life married couple Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh. Heeramandi currently doesn’t have a release date. You can watch the teaser here, and read the show’s official synopsis down below:
A place where courtesans were queens, where love and betrayal weaved the threads of succession. Are you ready to immerse yourself in the beauty of Heeramandi?
WATCH TEASER HERE
