Sanjay Leela Bhansali's ambitious project Heera Mandi seems all set to see the light of the day finally after 13 years. Peepingmoon.com has learned that Bhansali is now making the period drama as a web film, and has joined hands with the streaming giant Netflix to bankroll it. Although Bhansali and his team maintained a firm silence on the development when we reached, sources from the industry have confirmed that the project is very much being revived and will go on floors in the first quarter of 2021. 

"Bhansali and his production company's CEO Prerna Singh have been in talks with Netflix for quite some time now and they recently agreed to work together on Heera Mandi which has been a passion project for the filmmaker. The film has been envisioned as a big-scale custom drama and will have all the elements of a Sanjay Leela Bhansali epic even though he's not directing it himself," said the source.

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Bhansali has given the directorial duties for Heera Mandi to Vibhu Puri who had written dialogues for his Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan starrer critically acclaimed drama, Guzaarish (2010). Puri who made his directorial debut with Ayushmann Khurrana's Hawaizaada (2015) has already started the preparations for this film and will formally kick-off the pre-production early next year. He is expected to finalize the cast and other details of the project after returning from his honeymoon. 

"Many believed that Heera Mandi and Gangubai Kathiawadi are the same projects, however, that's not true. Although both films are the stories of prostitutes in the prostitution hub, they are two different scripts. While the Alia Bhatt film is the story of the Madam of Kamathipura, Gangubai Kothewali, Heera Mandi deals with the hidden culture in the renowned red light area in the Walled City of Lahore and shows the haunting pictures of women who inhabit the place and for whom sex is a job," the source further clarified adding that the revived Heera Mandi will have a new set of actors in the lead. 

Bhansali was originally supposed to make Heera Mandi with Rani Mukerji but things didn't materialize. Names of several leading ladies like Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Preity Zinta, and Priyanka Chopra were also attached but the project never went into production. Interestingly, Mahesh Bhatt was also working on a similar project in 2007 based on Fauzia Saeed's book, Taboo but that was shelved as well!