Bhansali’s Heera Mandi Goes From Sanjay

There are reports  in a  section  of   the  press that  Sanjay Leela Bhansali is all set to “revive”his  “favourite” project Heera Mandi, and  that too with his former assistant  Vibhu Puri(ever heard  of him?) directing the project as a webseries  for an OTT platform.

Unfortunately these reports are true.

  A  source  confirms.  “He(Sanjay Leela Bhansali) has no plans to  direct Heera Mandi  himself. He is already directing  Gangubai Kathiawadi which  is  also set in  the  redlight  area. Similar  films about a gallery  of  sex workers  lighting  up a redlight area  have already been  done. That includes Srijit Mukherjee’s Begum Jaan.”

It is  not clear why Bhansali has chosen  Vibhu Puri to direct the  digital version  of  Heera Mandi.Puri’s Hawaizaada  was  nothing but a copy of Bhansali’s style of  filmmaking.

As  for  jumping into the OTT bandwagon  , it is  sad  to see  a filmmaker  of  Bhansali’s  stature  falling  for the zeroes on the cheque.He had several offers from all the leading platforms. So far he had not given his nod to any of them. His  domain is  the large screen and he is currently focusing on his big-screen  project Gangubai Kathiawadi with Alia Bhatt  in the title  role.