Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Netflix has announced the second season of the period drama Heeramandi
Streaming giant Netflix has renewed Sanjay Leea Bhansali’s Heermandi for a second season. The news was broken by Variety on Monday morning before Netflix and Bhansali confirmed it later in the day. The filmmaker and the streaming giant shared a video of a flash mob in Mumbai with dancers dressed as the show’s courtesans. The video ended with the message: Heeramandi will return with season 2.
Within the first week of its May 1 launch, the series danced its way up the Netflix’s worldwide non-English TV chart in 43 countries, becoming the most-viewed Indian series for the streamer globally. The series has been reigning in the No. 1 spot in the India Top 10 chart since its launch.
Spanning 1920 through 1947, when the subcontinent was partitioned into India and Pakistan, Season 1 of the lavish story is set in the Heeramandi district of Lahore, British India, the milieu of the tawaifs. As with the geisha of Japan, tawaifs were trained in music and dance and courted by nobility. At the show’s center are Mallikajaan (Manisha Koirala), the scheming queen of Heeramandi, and her vindictive niece Fareedan (Sonakshi Sinha), who has ambitions to take her aunt’s place.
Richa Chadha, Sanjeeda Shaikh, Aditi Rao Hydari, Sharmin Segal, Fardeen Khan, Shekhar Suman, and Taha Shah Badussha also feature in the show. On expanding the series, Bhansali said, “It takes a lot to make a series. This one has taken a lot. After Gangubai Kathiawadi released in February 2022, from that to now every single day I have worked without a break. So the responsibility is huge on the series,” Bhansali told Variety.
“In Heeramandi 2, the women now come from Lahore to the film world. They leave Lahore after the partition and most of them settle in the Mumbai film industry or Kolkata film industry. So 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. So that’s the second season we are planning, let’s see where it goes,” Bhansali added.
The announcement has been met with mixed response from the fans. Most viewers have expressed excitement at the show returning, praising its grand scale and said they are looking forward to see what the characters will do now. However, there was more criticism for Sharmin Segal, one of the show’s leads, who has been criticised and trolled for her performance in season 1. “Petition to not cast Sharmin as Alamzeb,” wrote one user. Another added, “Just replace Sharmin Sehgal by Mrunal Thakur or other good royal looking actress.”
No release date or window for Heeramandi season 2 has been announced yet. Monika Shergill, VP, content, Netflix India, said, “Sanjay Leela Bhansali has intricately woven magic to bring Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar to life. Watching audiences everywhere fall in love with this series — making it truly their own as a cultural phenomenon — has been hugely energizing and it thrills me to share that we will be back with Season 2.”
With inputs from ANI
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