Fans of Kaleen Bhaiya, Guddu, Munna and Golu, it looks like the end is in sight. The cast and crew of the Amazon Prime web-series Mirzapur, including actor Ali Fazal and Shweta Tripathi, maintained a physical distance as they reunited for the show’s dubbing sessions. Prior to this, the crew had been working remotely during the lockdown.
Fazal, who plays Guddu Pandit, shared they had already began the dubbing before the lockdown and resumed work from where they left off.
“It was great to be back because this has been an unusually long break,” he said. “We shot for the show long back so it took us some time getting back into the groove. Each actor usually comes individually, but the one time we met was when our times clashed.
“The studios are on point about their hygiene so it allows one artiste at a time. So we walked into a pre-sanitised studio. The instructions are given from the other side. Dubbing is a system that was already an isolated job,” he added.
The first season of the show, which also stars Pankaj Tripathi, Divyendu Sharma, and Rasika Dugal, first aired in November 2018 and fans have been growing impatient for the second season to begin. Aparna Purohit, the head of India originals at Amazon Prime, confirmed to the English newspaper Mid-Day that the second season will air this year. The shooting of the series was completed last year in Banaras, Uttar Pradesh.
“We were always the underdogs and there was always immense love from the audience,” Fazal said of the show’s cult status. “But now the show is considerably delayed because of the circumstances posed by the pandemic. Through the lockdown, fans have been after us. We can feel the eyes on us and I hope the audience is a little generous. Such great content has come out in the last one year that I will be very proud of being part of Amazon’s legacy.”
Most people are admittedly nervous to resume work, even as the number of COVID-19 positive cases does not diminish, but Fazal states that there’s no scope for fear.
“I am rather happy going to work,” he shared. “We cannot fall prey to fear or that’s the end of us as we know it. Nothing can come out of fear. We need to be smart, healthy and simply cautious.”