Filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali completed 28 years today since he made his directorial debut with Khamoshi: The Musical! Released on August 9, 1996, it starred Salman Khan and Manisha Koirala in lead roles. The film is hinged on Annie, enacted by Koirala, who is a talented small-town girl torn between pursuing her dreams to become a singer and attending to her deaf and mute parents, Joseph and Flavy.
Raj, an incurable romantic, and a lover of music, aspires to fulfill Annie’s dreams. However, he has to convince her family, who refuse to let her follow her heart, since they feel that the world will never accept them.
Bhansali Productions uploaded a small video on social media, consisting of all the memorable moments from the film, to celebrate the completion of 28 years of Khamoshi: The Musical!. The caption read, “Here’s to the timeless tale of love and music! Celebrating 28 years of Khamoshi: The Musical! with moments that continue to touch our hearts #SanjayLeelaBhansali #Khamoshi #KhamoshiTheMusical #28YearsOfKhamoshiTheMusical @beingsalmankhan @m_koirala @iamnanapatekar #Helen #Raj #Annie #Joseph #Mariamma #Bollywood #HindiCinema.”
With a long career spanning 28 years, Bhansali has delivered quite a few projects of repute from Black to Padmaavat, Bajirao Mastani, Gangubai Kathiawadi, and others. This year, he made his foray into the OTT world with his web series Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar.
Season 1 of Heeramandi, therefore, is set between the years 1920 to 1947, during the partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan, based in the Heeramandi district of Lahore in British India, where tawaifs—the geishas of Japan—were trained in the skills of music and dance and courted as companions by nobility. The film has as its two central characters the cunning queen of Heeramandi, Mallikajaan, played by Manisha Koirala, and her envious niece Fareedan, played by Sonakshi Sinha, who wants to take her aunt’s place.
It also stars Richa Chadha, Sanjeeda Shaikh, Aditi Rao Hydari, Fardeen Khan, Shekhar Suman, and Taha Shah Badussha. The show is going to come back for a second season. Speaking to Netflix, Bhansali opened up about the series’ expansion: “It takes a lot to make a series. This one has taken a lot. After Gangubai released in February 2022, I have worked every single day without a break. The responsibility is huge on the series,” Bhansali told Variety. “In Heeramandi 2, the women move from Lahore to the film world. After the partition, they leave Lahore and most of them settle in the Mumbai or Kolkata film industry. Their journey in the bazaar remains the same— Populate they still have to dance and sing, this time for producers as against the nawabs. So that’s the second season we are planning. Let’s see where it goes,” Bhansali added.
