The makers of the Mirzapur revealed a very interesting backstory on how they named Akhanand Tripathi played by Pankaj Tripathi as Kaleen Bhaiya and how it almost got changed to ‘Atechi’ or ‘Sandook’ bhaiya.
In a recent interview, show creator Puneet Krishna shared:
During 90’s while growing up, there was this belt of UP johnpur, Mirzapur where a lot kaleen’s were made. World’s largest exporter of kaleen’s. So when I wrote Mirzapur, I kept that in mind and named him Kaleen bhaiya Coz we had in mind that he would smuggle the drugs under the carpets. And there’s a certain power to this term Kaleen bhaiya.
He further added:
So when we went for the recee, for location hunt, we figured that many carpet factories have shut, we hardly found one, so suggestions started pouring in that instead of Kaleen we can have suitcase or something resembling. But my argument was that ‘Atechi bhaiya’ wouldn’t sound right so somehow we retained Kaleen bhaiya.
Being one of the most awaited web series, Mirzapur 2 comes with a promise of more action, drama, and thrill
Produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidwani under their production house Excel Entertainment, Mirzapur 2 releases on Amazon Prime Video on 23rd October 2020.