Mirzapur (TV series)

Mirzapur is an Indian action crime thriller streaming television series created for Amazon Prime Video, by Karan Anshuman, who wrote the script along with Puneet Krishna and Vineet Krishna. Anshuman directed the first season of the series, along with Gurmeet Singh and Mihir Desai, the latter of whom directed the second season and third season along with Anand Iyer. The series is produced by Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar of Excel Entertainment. The story follows Akhandanand “Kaleen” Tripathi, a crime boss and businessman who is the proverbial ruler of Mirzapur district in the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh state in India.

In the first season, the main cast features Pankaj Tripathi, Ali Fazal, Divyendu Sharma, Vikrant Massey, Shweta Tripathi, Shriya Pilgaonkar, Rasika Dugal, Harshita Gaur and Kulbhushan Kharbanda. The second season retains the principal cast from the first season, excluding Massey and Pilgaonkar, with new cast consisting of Vijay Varma, Isha Talwar, Lilliput, Anjum Sharma, Priyanshu Painyuli, Anangsha Biswas and Neha Sargam.

The series was filmed mostly across Uttar Pradesh, primarily shot in Mirzapur, and other locations including Jaunpur, Azamgarh, Ghazipur, Lucknow, Raebareli, Gorakhpur, and Varanasi. Sanjay Kapoor served as the cinematographer, with Manan Mehta and Anshul Gupta edited the series. John Stewart Eduri composed the background score.

The first season of Mirzapur was released on 16 November 2018. The series opened to positive response from audiences, while critics gave mixed reviews. The performances of the cast members, particularly Pankaj Tripathi and Ali Fazal received rave response. It eventually became the most popular streaming series in India, after Sacred Games. The second season of Mirzapur was released on 23 October 2020. The third season of the show was released on 5 July 2024. The first two seasons were received positively, however the third season received mixed reactions from the audience.

Premise

The iron-fisted Akhandanand Tripathi is a millionaire carpet exporter and the crime boss of Mirzapur. His son Munna is an unworthy, power-hungry heir who will stop at nothing to inherit his father's legacy. An incident at a wedding procession forces him to cross paths with Ramakant Pandit, an upstanding lawyer, and his sons Guddu and Bablu. It snowballs into a game of ambition, power and greed that threatens the fabric of this lawless city.

Cast

Overview

Recurring

• Harshita Gaur as Dimpy Pandit (season 1-3)
• Rajesh Tailang as Ramakant Pandit (seasons 1−3)
• Sheeba Chaddha as Vasudha Pandit (season 1-3)
• Priyanshu Painyuli as Radheshyam 'Robin' Agarwal (seasons 2-3)
• Shaji Choudhary as Maqbool Khan (season 1-2)
• Aasif Khan as Babar Khan (seasons 1–2)
• Abhishek Banerjee as Subodh aka Compounder (season 1)
• Brahma Mishra as Lalit Burma aka Lodu Lalit (seasons 1–2)
• Shahnawaz Pradhan as SP Parshuram Gupta (seasons 1-3)
• Avanish padey as Intelligence officer (IPS) (Season 3)
• Pramod Pathak as Jai Prakash "J.P." Yadav (season 1-2)
• Shubrajyoti Barat as Rati Shankar Shukla (season 1)
• Anjum Sharma as Sharad Shukla (seasons 1-3)
• Anil George as Rauf Hakim Lala (seasons 1-3)
• Akash Singh Rajput as Daara Shikhov (season 1)
• Shernavaz Jijina as Shabnam Lala (season 1)
• Manu Rishi as IG Vishudanand Dubey (season 1)
• Prashansa Sharma as Radhiya (season 1)
• Anangsha Biswas as Zarina (season 1)
• Priyasha Bhardwaj as Jamuna Maurya (season 2)
• Hemant Kapadia as Imran Alam (seasons 1–2)
• Nitin Mahesh Joshi as Raja (season 1–2)
• Paritosh Sand as Chief Minister (CM) Surya Pratap Yadav, CM of Uttar Pradesh (season 2)
• Meghna Malik as Shakuntala Shukla (season 2)
• Shrikant Verma as Mamaji (season 2)
• Alka Amin as Geeta Tyagi (season 2)
• Neha Sargam as Saloni Bharat Tyagi (season 2)
• Santosh Bhokare as Police Officer Pandey
• Mukesh Bhatt as Haseena
• Dibyendu Bhattacharya as Doctor (season 2)
• Rohit Tiwari as PA Anand (season 2)
• Ali Quli Mirza as Sheku Bhai (season 2)
• Amika Shail as Bar Singer (season 2)
• Salim Siddiqui as Lambardar (season 3)
• Azher Qurushi as Valmiki (season 3)
• Jeetu Shastri as Usman Miyan

Episodes

Series overview

Season 1 (2018)

Season 2 (2020)

Season 3 (2024)

Production

Development

In August 2016, Amazon Studios collaborated with Excel Entertainment to produce their first two Indian original series for the platform, with one of them titled Inside Edge (2017), which is based on sports, and a crime-thriller series, in order to extend it service in the country, ahead of the launch of Amazon Prime Video in India in December 2016. In March 2017, the makers announced about the crime drama series which is set in Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh. Rithesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar, said that the series is loosely based on the Netflix series Narcos.

Karan Anshuman created the series, who also wrote the script with Puneet Krishna and Vineet Krishna, and directed the series along with Gurmmeet Singh and Mihir Desai. In an interview with Devarsi Ghosh of Scroll.in, Anshuman stated that he has been a big fan of the Hinterland western genre, and also watched films such as Omkara (2006) and Gangs of Wasseypur series, however, due to the restrictions in the medium, the genre cannot be possible in cinema, as it demands extreme violence and brutality. He added "We had this idea for a gangster drama, and I felt that the best way to do it in India was to set it in the hinterlands, in the back of beyond. We [co-writers Puneet Krishna and Vineet Krishna] had access to a lot of stories based on our research, but we wanted to create a world that was hyper-real and amped up. We created a world of violence where even the nicest person would own a gun and could pull the trigger if the need arose. But the characters and their relationships are emotional. All the characters are heroes in their own arc, so everyone will find someone to relate to."

In March 2020, the makers announced for a third instalment in the series, with its pre-production work being underway. Amazon Prime Video, officially announced for a third season on 12 November 2020.

Casting

The series revolves around the principal character Pankaj Tripathi who plays the role of Akhandanad Tripathi (Kaleen Bhayya), a mafia boss and millionaire carpet exporter. A 30-second teaser released in October 2018 consists largely of shots from a factory in Mirzapur where guns are manufactured in the garb of carpets, and Kaleen Bhayya is behind this illegal business. Divyendu Sharma, Ali Fazal, Vikrant Massey appears in other principal roles alongside Shweta Tripathi, Shriya Pilgaonkar, Rasika Dugal, Harshita Gaur and Kulbhushan Kharbanda. Anshuman stated that the characters in the series are real, but the world they are in is larger than life, similar to the worlds of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. He eventually conceived that the characters Guddu (Ali Fazal) and Bablu (Vikrant Massey) were inspired two real boys who rode a bike and went around terrorising the town. He further added Guddu's character was inspired by a bodybuilder's look.

In an interview published on an online portal in February 2020, Vikrant Massey revealed that the makers of the series had kept him in dark about his character's demise, till the day of the shoot. Reportedly, Vikrant Massey's character Vinay Pandit (Bablu) was brutally murdered in the climax of Season 1. He exclaimed that the makers had kept his death under the wraps to reportedly make the audiences more curious about his character. But his character did not have a cameo appearance in the second season. Although Shriya's character Swaragini Gupta Pandit (Sweety), had a cameo appearance in the second season.

The second season has the recurring cast from the first one with Sharad Shukla, Vijay Varma, Isha Talwar, Lilliput, Anjum Sharma, Priyanshu Painyuli, Anangsha Biswas and Neha Sargam, joined the new addition to the cast.

Filming

Season 1

Filming of first season began on 27 September 2017, with the badminton sequence being the first scene to be shot. Ali Fazal and Shweta Tripathi joined the sets in Varanasi on 30 September. The story is set in Mirzapur and Bhadohi in Uttar Pradesh, but is fictionalised and was not based on real Mirzapur. The primary locations for the shooting of the series included Jaunpur, Azamgarh, Ghazipur, Lucknow, Raebareli, Gorakhpur, and Varanasi. The show makers have taken aerial shots of the Ganga river in Uttar Pradesh, and Another important location for the series was the Badohi district. Shooting of the series finished in June 2018.