Sanjay Leela Bhansali's OTT debut Heeramandi started streaming on Netflix from May 1. A fictional tale based around the lives of tawaifs in Lahore's red-light area of Heeramandi in pre-independent India, the big-budget show stars Manisha Koirala, Sonakshi Sinha, Aditi Rao Hydari, Sharmin Segal, Richa Chadha, and Sanjeeda Shaikh in leading roles.
As more and more viewers are watching Heeramandi, they are spotting major inaccuracies in the show. One user on X (formerly known as Twitter) shared a screenshot of Sonakshi's character Fareedan reading an Urdu newspaper and stated that the headlines in the newspaper are of the events that happened in the recent past including one news related to Covid-19, implying that the makers have done a major goof-up considering the show is set in the Lahore of the 1920s-1940s.
When a screenshot of this post was shared on Reddit, several other netizens wrote that Sanjay Leela Bhansali's movies have also had historical inaccuracies. One netizen wrote, "He was making Mastani dance with Kashibai, this is nothing", while another added, "A friend also pointed out that the trend to use Allah Hafiz started only when PTV started doing it in the 1980s. till then it was Khuda Hafiz or if it was Punjabis (Muslims and Hindus), it was rab raakha."
"This show was made to cater to western audience too probably considering how Ali Wong and Bill Hader were here. Maybe Netflix thought it was India's answer to Bridgerton with the usual poverty and oppression porn that sells in the west. Little did they know that it's just expensive sets and a project to prop up SLB's niece. I swear even the sets had more emotion than her", wrote another netizen criticising Bhansali's niece Sharmin's performance in the show.
"The problem stems from the fact that the audience on Netflix consumes cinema differently. There is a lot more detailing that needs to be done. People pause and notice small subtleties. He would have gotten away with this had it been the big screen thing. They can't pause, and forget mostly because they don't watch it again. Bollywood needs to up their ante", read another comment.
Do you think a show made at a budget of a few hundred crores over years, can afford to have such mistakes?
byu/writerrani inBollyBlindsNGossip
Heeramandi also stars Shekhar Suman, Adhyayan Suman, Farida Jalal, Fardeen Khan, and Taha Shah Badussha in supporting roles.
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