After Inshallah was shelved, the fans were eagerly waiting for the news of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s next project. The filmmaker, then, announced Gangubai Kathiawadi with Alia Bhatt as the lead actress. With that being said, the prep for the film has begun and Alia Bhatt will undertake diction lessons for her role.
Gagubai Kathiawadi will have Alia Bhatt take over the titular role as the madam of the brothels in Kamathipura in the 1960s. She was rumoured to be a drug peddler and had gangsters as her clients in brothels. Since Bhansali is known to be very passionate about his prep for films, he has reached out to Mumbai’s Gujarati theatre personalities including actors Manoj Joshi and Supriya Pathak to help him in the search for dialect coaches for Alia. Alia will be shooting the film simultaneously while undertaking her month-long diction class.
Though Alia will speak in the dialect for only a few portions of the film, Bhansali wants her to perfect it. The dialect will have strong Sindh influence since the region had Kathis and Rajputs from present-day Rajasthan and Sindh.
Titled Gangubai Kathiawadi, Gangubai, remembered as The Madam Of Kamathipura in the pages of history, was pushed into prostitution at an early age, and later became an extremely influential pimp with numerous ferocious gangsters as her client. The film will release on 11th September 2020.