There’s a saying ‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’; this begum’s untold story is an epitome of this saying. Set in the 1980s in Mumbai, a time when organized crime was at its peak, MX Original Series – Ek thi Begum chronicles the life of a beautiful, gutsy woman Ashraf Bhatkar aka Sapna (played by Anuja Sathe). Life as she knew it changed when the city’s biggest don Maqsood (Ajay Gehi) turned responsible for the death of her husband Zaheer (Ankit Mohan). Inspired by true events, MX Player brings viewers the story of begum Ashraf aka Sapna who turned femme fatale and vowed to avenge her beloved’s killer. This bilingual MX Original Series will stream for FREE on MX Player, starting 8 April.
The trailer of this revenge drama dropped today, and the 14 episodic series is created, written & directed by Sachin Darekar. Talking about the project, he said, “This narrative brilliantly captures the resilient strength of a woman who was pushed to the brink but emerges as a dominant force. All the characters play a crucial role in the story and they have truly brought this project alive with their performance.”
This series sees Anuja Sathe play the lead role of Ashraf Bhatkar aka Sapna. On portraying such a strong character, she said, “We’ve usually seen films and stories on the mafia/ dons helmed by men, this story talks about a woman rising above her sorrows and becoming the Mafia Queen of her time. I’ve portrayed a variety of roles before, but this is an opportunity that I just couldn’t let go of. Ashraf has many shades to her and reflecting that on screen was a challenge that I wanted to take up. It took immense emotional and mental investment. I hope that people appreciate and enjoy the series as much as we did while making it.”
Along with Anuja Sathe, this riveting series sees a robust cast including Ankit Mohan, Chinmay Mandlekar, Rajendra Shisatkar, Resham, Abhijeet Chavan, Pradip Doiphode, Vithal Kale, Nazarr Khan, Vijay Nikam, Anil Nagarkar, Suchit Jadhav, Raju Aathavale and Santosh Juvekar amongst others in pivotal roles.