Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s debut web series will be released on Netflix on May 1

If it has anything to do with Sanjay Leela Bhansali, then you know it will have greatness written all over it. Netflix announced the release date of Bhansali’s debut web series on Wednesday evening. Heramand: Diamond Market, with an aerial display in Mumbai. The release date announcement was attended by actors including Manisha Koirala, Sonakshi Sinha, Richa Chadha, Sanjeeda Shaikh and Sharmeen Segal. The series is scheduled to be released on Netflix on May 1, 2024. Only Bhansali and the show’s sixth cast member Aditi Rao Hydari, who is said to have secretly married her beau, actor Siddharth, were present at the event. .

Set in the pre-independence era, it depicts the life of courtesans. The show’s one-liners reveal that it’s about Mallikajaan, played by Koirala, who rules a house of courtesans, but a new rival, Faredan, played by Sinha, threatens her reign as a rebellion brews in British-ruled India. An epic saga of love, power, betrayal, struggle and ultimately freedom is Bhansali’s debut foray into the digital platform. In a 2023 interview with Netflix CEO Ted Sarando, Bhansali described the series as his biggest project and that it would be a tribute to films like Mother India, Mughal-e-Azam and Pakieza. The first song from the soundtrack ‘Sakal Ban’, composed by Bhansali, lyrics by Aamir Khusro and sung by Raja Hassan, was released on March 8 and has already garnered over 8.9 million views in two weeks.

Talking about the experience of being in Bhansali’s world, Sinha said that it was so dreamlike that they didn’t want to leave it. Shaikh called him “the most celebrated filmmaker in the country” and said he wanted the show to go on and on. Chadha’s experience is of “high aesthetic standards”, be it dialogues, dance and music. “I think we all became better actors. His work ethic is unmatched,” he added. When asked to describe their characters in one word, he described his character Lajo as “emotional”. Shaikh’s character is called Wahida, and she described her character as “mysterious,” while Segal’s Alamzeb, she said, is “love” personified. Koirala called him Malikajaan’s ‘Chaalbaaz’ and Sinha said his character Faredan is a tekh like Mirchi.

Richa Chadha as Lajo in Heramandi on Netflix. (Image courtesy of Netflix)