Vikrant Massey Mirzapur Indulging Our Male Egos Crew Had 85 Percent Men

Earlier this week, the film’s teaser was unveiled and quickly went viral. While fans were thrilled to see the return of iconic characters like Munna Bhaiya (played by Divyenndu) and Compounder (Abhishek Banerjee), one absence stood out, Vikrant Massey. Although, his character, Bablu Pandit is returning in the film, the role will now be played by Jitendra Kumar instead of Vikrant.

While the reason behind Vikrant’s exit from such an iconic role remains unknown, the actor recently reflected on his Mirzapur journey during a conversation with FLO Bangalore Official. Looking back at the first season, he admitted that he still wishes the makers had not killed off Bablu Pandit. “I wish they hadn’t killed me,” Vikrant said with a smile. He further revealed that he never anticipated either his character or the series would become such a massive phenomenon when he first signed the project.

“When Mirzapur came my way, it was actually just a bunch of enthusiastic people coming together. There were a lot of wonderful women who were a part of it too, but primarily the show had, say, maybe 85% men involved, both in front of and behind the camera. It was simply a group of people who came together and said, ‘Let’s make this show.'” Praising the vision and work ethic of Excel Entertainment, Vikrant noted that the studio backed a story set in the Indian hinterland long before such settings became commonplace in mainstream entertainment. “So it was just a bunch of people getting together, going out there and indulging our testosterones, our male egos, or patriarchy, if you could say.”

The actor also recalled how Mirzapur became an instant blockbuster and how Bablu Pandit turned into an iconic character almost overnight. “I remember very vividly that I was in Lucknow the day the show came out. I was shooting for a film called Ramprasad Ki Tehrvi. I was doing a 7 am to 7 pm shift. I entered the set around 6 or 6:30 am. It wasn’t even properly bright yet. But by the time the shoot was about to get over, I heard some chaos outside the location. The director and the assistants were finding it a little difficult to control the sound because we shoot in sync sound. And then we realised that there were at least 200–300 people outside the location because news had spread that Bablu Bhaiya was shooting there.”

Vikrant said he was left stunned by the overwhelming response, especially considering it had happened within 24 hours of the show’s release. “And this happened within 24 hours. The show launched at 12 midnight, and this was the next evening, so maybe after 17–18 hours. There were people on bikes following my car. They wanted pictures with me, they wanted selfies, and autographs. And that is when we realised that we’d actually made something good, something people were really enjoying watching.”

While many actors whose characters in the show have died are coming back for teh film, Vikrant’s role is the only one that has been recast with a different actor.