Sanjay Leela Bhansali to direct the first episode of Netflix’s Heera Mandi?

The first episode of the Netflix web series Heera Mandi, produced by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, is likely to be helmed by the filmmaker himself. It is still unclear whether the episode would feature Sonakshi Sinha, Huma Qureshi, both or someone else altogether.

The filmmaker was supposed to direct all episodes of Heera Mandi but was caught up with the post-production of his upcoming film Gangubai Kathiawadi. The Alia Bhatt starrer was also one of the films delayed owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and its subsequent lockdown.

While Sanjay Leela Bhansali directs the first episode, his mentee Vibhu Puri will helm the other six episodes of the series.

Vibhu assisted SLB for Saawariya as well. He had also penned the dialogues for Guzaarish, which starred Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in lead roles. He is best known for directing Hawaizaada, featuring Ayushmann Khurrana in the lead role.

Heera Mandi is touted to be Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s dream project for 12 years. The storyline of the show has been kept under wraps while the supporting cast remains to be finalised.

Recently, it was speculated that Gangubai Kathiawadi would opt for an OTT release. However, a report claims that Sanjay Leela Bhansali would rather wait for the theatres to open up than stream his film on an OTT platform.

A source told SpotboyE that the filmmaker is keen to release his movie in theatres because of the ‘scale and size of the visuals and emotions’. “These cannot be relocated to the OTT platform at any cost,” the source had stated.

The film, adapted from S. Hussain Zaidi’s book named ‘Mafia Queens of Mumbai’, was initially slated to release on July 30, 2021.