In a one-of-its-kind move, a successful web series was adapted for the big screen, shifting from a personal viewing experience to to a community viewing experience. Excel Productions’ Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani produced Mirzapur, which has turned into a franchise over the years. Mirzapur The Film is ending its fourth week at the box office and has earned over Rs 270 crore as its India gross collections, as per industry tracker, Sacnilk.

SCREEN exclusively had a free-wheeling chatra with its director, Gurmmeet Singh, where he spoke about the extension of the Mirzapur universe, challenges with the CBFC, and the audiences’ love. He calls the box office success a blessing in disguise. He said, “From the day the film was announced until its release, the rush was so intense that we were completely focused on making the film happen. I never got a chance to sit down and even ask the producers, ‘Okay, what is a good number that you’ll be happy with?’ But I think the response has been so phenomenal. And for us, the fact that people have loved the film. There was an expectation that the existing Mirzapur fandom might turn up and they’d want to watch the film, but the fact that they liked it, I think, is the biggest takeaway for me as a director more than anything else.”

Gurmmeet was asked by the producers if he would want to be added to a WhatsApp group to track its progression, and he responded with a negative. He recalled, “At Excel they asked me if I’d want to be put on a WhatsApp group which tracks the numbers. I declined as I think it’s best to leave that to the experts, and they are better judges to decide how profitable the film is. For us, the audience’s love is always the priority.”

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Gurmeet Singh also shared why he continued with the theme of Season 1 for Mirzapur – The Film. “When the decision was made for the big screen transition, we were all sure that we needed to bring the raw, gritty, fun energy that Season 1 had before things got serious and dire. So that’s why we chose that timeline when all the OG (original) characters were alive, so we could bring back the Guddu-Munna (Ali Fazal-Divyenndu Sharma) rivalry. So that essentially was the reason why we chose that timeline, and also we wanted the film to be a celebration of sorts. For that to happen, we needed these young people to be as brash as they could be without any grief pulling them down.”

Given that Mirzapur fans enjoy the loaded action sequences, its language, and rawness, we asked Gurmmeet, how he maneuvered his way through the CBFC (Central Bureau of Film Certification) guidelines, without losing the show’s essence. “We were mindful of the guidelines. There were certain things that we had to rework according to those guidelines. However, the people at CBFC watched the film and told us, ‘You have to keep in mind that we have such a vast country. We know it’s an adults-only film, and we understand Mirzapur as a pop culture phenomenon, we know what the audiences are coming in for, and we respect that. But you have to understand that it’s very difficult to manage such a big country of ours and to ensure that no youngsters go in to watch adult films, which keeps happening.’ Which is why they are also a lot more stringent, but they are cognizant of the fact that we are now understanding more mature storytelling, and there is a step towards that as well.”

Ali Fazal in a still from Mirzapur The Movie.

Whether the next installment of Mirzapur will be a franchise or a movie, the director said, “So, I don’t know what the Mirzapur gods have lined up for us next, but I know that Mirzapur is going to come back. Whatever happens, it’ll be interesting. Which way it’ll go, hopefully we’ll explore that right now.”

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Before concluding, we also asked Gurmmeet Singh of the possibility of having a Mirzapur universe where the characters’ lives are intertwined, and he replied, “Never say never.”

Mirzapur – The Film, featuring Pankaj Tripathi, Ali Fazal, Jitendra Kumar, Rasika Dugal, Shweta Tripathi, Shriya Pilgaonkar, Abhishek Banerjee, Mohitt Maalik among others, had a theatrical release on September 4, 2026.