Heeramandi: Have Shabana Azmi, Mumtaz’s roles in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s series been scrapped? Read on…

Ever since news of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s historical epic, Heeramandi, being in the works, broke out, fans have anxiously been waiting for any and all updates regarding the same. The series was announced back in 2021, and the fact that SJB seems to be slowly building a star studded cast for his epic series has gotten everyone excited, to say the least. The news that veteran actresses Shabana Azmi and Mumtaz are also a part of the film’s cast have been doing the rounds as well. But it seems that the actress’ roles have been scrapped from the film.

According to a report in Bollywood Hungama, the director has small, but significant roles in mind for Shabana and Mumtaz, which were written keeping the duo in mind. The director had offered the roles to the duo, but the two veteran stars were unable to be a part of the series. Being the perfectionist he is, SJB had reportedly decided to scrap the roles rather than give them to someone else.

A source also told the portal that the show is being shot on sets that resemble a huge palace, and the filming was taking longer than makers had anticipated. Shots that were supposed to take a day had stretched on to three days. Meanwhile, Netflix had no qualms and were putting their full trust in SJB, trusting the director’s vision.

In an earlier conversation with ETimes, Mumtaz had spoken about how SJB had approached her for Heeramandi. Calling them both perfectionists, Mumtaz had revealed that the director had told her about her wish to see her in Heeramandi, but she was reluctant to talk more beyond that. “Maybe he thinks that I’m not suitable for a role or maybe he thinks that I might demand too much because I am not a person who works for free. I respect him and I don’t want to do anything to hurt him”, she had said.

Heeramandi will premiere on Netflix. A release date is yet to be announced by the makers.