The director tells The Free Press Journal that a sequel isn't locked in yet but the film's theatrical haul has him treating the franchise's next move as an opportunity, not pressure.
Gurmmeet Singh didn't see this coming. Mirzapur: The Movie, born out of a show that started life on Amazon Prime Video, has now crossed Rs 300 crore in theatres, and the director tells The Free Press Journal in an exclusive chat that even he underestimated how badly fans wanted this world on the big screen.
"I don't think anyone could've imagined the response we have received," he said, adding that watching the fandom turn up for a community viewing has been something the team will hold onto for a while.
The seeds for a theatrical Mirzapur go back further than you'd think. Two episodes of Season 1 played at the MAMI festival in 2018, and the reaction there convinced everyone the show could work as a cinema experience. Producer Ritesh Sidhwani kept nudging Singh and writer Puneet since 2019 to build a big-screen version. It took years to actually crack it.
There was an obvious risk. Why would anyone pay to watch something they already stream at home? Singh's answer is that the marketing did the heavy lifting. "We hoped if the teaser or trailer and songs can spark the theatrical desire then they would come," he said, crediting a campaign he called young and energetic.
Making a film out of a world audiences already know inside out came with its own contradiction. Familiarity meant the team could move fast, but it also meant they couldn't just coast on nostalgia. Singh calls it "Yin and Yang", strengths doubling as weaknesses. The story had to feel new while keeping the fan-service intact.
On a sequel, he's not committing to anything yet. "Immediate nahin soche hain, par sochenge," he said, saying it's not on the table right now but it will get thought through. Asked whether the box office numbers now put pressure on making the next chapter bigger, he flipped it into a positive. "We look at it as an opportunity, and the bigger the opportunity the more excited we are."
The franchise has always drawn criticism for how it handles violence, and Singh pushed back on that read. He describes Mirzapur as a gangster drama rooted in the heartland, where anyone chasing power ends up with loss or grief, not reward. "Crime doesn't pay" is how he frames the show's actual message.
One question he wouldn't touch: reports that the song Shoorveer would be dropped from the film. "That's a question best answered by the studio," he said, leaving it there.
Singh also pointed to something bigger playing out at the box office right now. Mirzapur and Hanuman Ansh, two films with almost nothing in common tonally, are both drawing audiences at the same time. He called it proof that cinegoers will show up for wildly different genres as long as the film delivers.
What's next for him personally is busy. A new drama series titled Pan Parda Zarda is on the way, and his freshly launched production house, Cheetah on the Moon, is gearing up for two streaming shows and a feature film going on floors over the coming year.
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