Iat the end of Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar, Mallikajaan (Manisha Koirala), who reigns over the courtesans in the titular neighborhood in pre-independence India, receives news that the British Army has arrested her daughter, Bibbojaan, for her rebellion in collusion with Indian freedom fighters. “All these years, we were just tawaifs [courtesans]but now we have become patriots of our motherland,” she says defiantly, tears streaming from her eyes.
The renowned Indian director Sanjay Leela Bhansali, who created and directed the highly anticipated Hindi series that debuted on Netflix on May 1, says he wanted to reimagine the world of real-life courtesans from the walled city of Lahore, now situated in modern-day Pakistan. Bhansali calls them the “unsung heroes” in India’s struggle for independence from British colonial rule in the mid-20th century. “These women have always been seen as artists and seen with their diamond necklaces, but their eyes have a story to tell,” he tells TIME.
A long-celebrated auteur of Indian cinema, Bhansali, 61, has brought grandeur and opulence to the medium for more than three decades with films like Devdas, which premiered at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, and the latest box office hit of 2022 Gangubai, which starred Alia Bhatt and took audiences into the world of Mumbai’s historic red light district. In many of her works, female protagonists play the most integral roles, demanding attention and agency in their lives, while exposing their anxieties and imperfections. “I want to give women dignity, which is sometimes taken for granted in our society,” says Bhansali.
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Heeramandi likewise, it builds on these themes. Set in the 1920s, at the heart of the story is a bitter rivalry between the powerful Mallikajaan and Fareedan (played by Sonakshi Sinha), the daughter of his former archenemy, whom she strangled to death years ago. Fareedan returns to Heeramandi to avenge his mother, armed with a plan to dethrone the queen. Around him, the other courtesans – Mallikajaan’s daughters, brothers and friends – struggle with their own hopes and desires for self-realization and freedom.
The concept was originally conceived by Indian writer Moin Beg, who approached Bhansali about the subject almost 20 years ago. But the director spent a long time thinking about the idea, waiting for the right opportunity to realize his vision.
Finally – and for the first time – audiences will see Bhansali refocus his maximalist approach normally reserved for the big screen in an eight-episode series for Netflix. That’s a tall order when you consider that his previous works generally revolved around one, at most two, powerful female protagonists. In Heeramandithere are six – all of whom Bhansali describes as the “queens of Lahore” – and that’s not counting the list of supporting characters that make up the cast, each with their own intelligence, talent and a story to tell.
“It was a challenge to say, ‘How can I sustain myself for eight episodes?’” says Bhansali. “But I knew this was the best vehicle to do justice to the vastness of the subject and so many characters that unfolded.”
With India becoming the fastest growing market in the world for Netflix, the streamer also heavily invested a larger share of its $17 billion budget this year on Indian content. For Bhansali, this meant a well-funded production that allowed him to recreate the world of the courtesans in intricate detail and on a larger scale than ever before, mobilizing 700 artisans over seven months to erect a sprawling set in Mumbai’s Film City. The director, known for executing his creative vision in a demanding and onerous manner, even flew to Delhi to visit clothing warehouses with the costume designer, individually choosing ornate fabrics to dress his characters. “Every moment is a labor of love by so many beautiful and talented people: the art directors, the costume designers, the makeup artists, the people who created the paintings on the walls, the cobblestone streets, the lamps,” he says.
All of this meticulous costume and production design is to better serve Heeramandiin glimpse the historic and often misunderstood world of tawaifs, or courtesans, who became an integral part of Indian music, culture and heritage during the Mughal era. The Heera Mandi neighborhood, which still exists in Lahore, was once a thriving center of commerce, arts and entertainment before becoming a red-light district. During their heyday, courtesans were not only respected as disciplined performers in classical music and dance, but also as powerful players in elite Indian society for their refined taste, etiquette, and royal patronage. They followed a matrilineal inheritance system, passing on their profession to their daughters and enjoying the privileges of education and income that were not normally granted to most women in Indian society. Like the geishas of Japan, their presence on special occasions was seen as a statement of class and wealth among the noble families of pre-independence India.
Heeramandi, based on tales of courtesans handed down by historians, pays tribute to her convictions in India’s freedom struggle as well as her active contribution to India’s economy at the time. The character of Bibbojaan, daughter of Mallikajaan, for example, echoes the spirit of Azizan Bai, a courtesan from the northern Indian city of Kanpur who donated to and supported the 1857 national uprising against the British East India Company. During the anti-colonial uprisings of the 19th century, many of the courtesans’ residences became hideouts for Indian rebels.
“Even if the world does not sing their song, they played their role in history,” says Bhansali, “and found freedom at the end of it,” referring to the choices they may have made in the years after India. independence in 1947.
Changes in India’s social fabric – influenced first by the spread of Western education and Victorian morality during British rule and later by reformist Hindu values of chastity – saw a decline in the status of courtesans in society. As patronage declined, the neighborhood began to transform into a red light district and courtesans began to work in dance bars which led to the conflation of courtesan and sex worker in the modern Indian imagination. according to to Manish Gaekwad, author of The Last Courtesan: Writing My Mother’s Memoirs. Some – like the famous Gauhar Jaan which became known as “Melba from India” – had a more fortuitous next chapter and became artists, singers and the first generation of celebrated Indian film stars.
The story told in Bhansali’s show ends before the lives of courtesans evolved in this way in modern Indian society. However, he hopes that in Heeramandi, viewers see these women in all their dimensions, including their “sometimes wicked, sometimes charming” qualities, he says. And with Netflix’s enormous reach, an international audience can savor India’s stunning jewelry and costumes, as well as connect with the nuances of its history, society and culture.
“We saw these women singing and dancing and yet we didn’t see them,” he says. But if Heeramandi accomplish what he set out to do, “we will really see them”.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
