After 13 Years, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Heera Mandi’ Will Now Take Off As Web-Film?

The work on Gangubai Kathiawadi is progressing nicely and looks like another one of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s passion projects will take off soon.

After gathering dust for 13 years, the period drama ‘Heera Mandi’ will finally see the light of the day as a web-film.

As per Peeping Moon report, Netflix will reportedly be backing the project and it will go on floors in the 1st quarter of 2021. 

“Bhansali and his production company’s CEO Prerna Singh have been in talks with Netflix for quite some time now and they recently agreed to work together on Heera Mandi which has been a passion project for the filmmaker. The film has been envisioned as a big-scale custom drama and will have all the elements of a Sanjay Leela Bhansali epic even though he’s not directing it himself,” a source told Peeping Moon.

It was being speculated that Gangubai Kathiawadi and Heera Mandi were the same project as the subject matter revolved around prostitutes. However, they are two different scripts and Heera Mandi will have a whole new set of actors.

“Many believed that Heera Mandi and Gangubai Kathiawadi are the same projects, however, that’s not true. Although both films are the stories of prostitutes in the prostitution hub, they are two different scripts. While the Alia Bhatt film is the story of the Madam of Kamathipura, Gangubai Kothewali, Heera Mandi deals with the hidden culture in the renowned red light area in the Walled City of Lahore and shows the haunting pictures of women who inhabit the place and for whom sex is a job,” the source further clarified.

Heera Mandi will be directed by Filmmaker Vibhu Puri, who is reportedly working on the preproduction of the film and finalising the cast. Bhansali had originally planned on making the film with Rani Mukerji but things didn’t materialize. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Preity Zinta, and Priyanka Chopra were also considered for the leading role but the project sadly did not take off earlier.

Who would you like to see in this new Bhansali film? Let us know in the comments below!