The Hindi cinema has produced several movies based on the life of real-life crime gangsters. Gangs of Wasseypur, D-Day, Once Upon a Time in Mumbai, Haseena Parkar, and Shootout at Wadala are a few names among others. Now, we have another series, titled, Bambai Meri Jaan, which is set to stream soon. Helmed by Shujaat Saudagar, the series is reportedly touted to be loosely based on the book, Dongri to Dubai, by Hussain Zaidi. However, during the media interactions, the director stated that it is a fictional story.
A few days prior to the release of the series, Pinkvilla interacted with the cast of Bambai Meri Jaan, which includes Kay Kay Menon, Nivedita Bhattacharya, and Kritika Kamra among others. The director of the series, Shujaat was also present, and we chanced upon asking the question, "In your opinion, is the Hindi cinema fascinated with the underworld culture?" In response to this, he answered, "I don't think it's just the Hindi cinema, it's the society at large, is fascinated, is drawn, is attracted towards the dark side, if I may call it that. If you see, internationally as well, whether they are shows, they are films, some of the successful shows and films have been based on crime - - whether it is Peaky Blinders or Narcos or The GoodFellas, The Godfather. So, there is a certain attraction to that side of it. Also, it creates conflict, it's cinematic to tell these tales."
In addition to the above quote, the director stated, "There is a certain cowboy image you want to... live bad and live vicariously? through these characters, which in a socio-economic situation is not the right lifestyle perceptually to live. So, that really kind of attracts an audience. I don't think it is just the Hindi cinema, I think it is cinema across the world, which explores these stories of crime."
Watch the entire video conversation with the cast here:
In this video, they also spoke about how and why Mumbai is an emotion for them. We also took them back to the time when Mumbai was Bombay, and made the cast and crew take up interesting trivia questions about the city that never sleeps.
Produced by Excel Media and Entertainment, the web series, Bambai Meri Jaan starts streaming on Amazon Prime from September 14 onwards.
