When was the last time a series became so successful that it spawned a theatrical offering? Amazon Prime Video’s smash hit Mirzapur has become the first show in the Indian OTT digital landscape to make the transition to a theatrical release. Abhishek Banerjee, who played Compounder in the crime drama’s first season that premièred in 2018, had certainly not imagined in his wildest dreams that six years on, he would reprise the role for the big screen. “This character remains close to my heart. It’s a fan favourite. For many years, people would call me Compounder. Playing the character was intense, dark, and edgy. The fact that I get to step into his shoes again, this time for the big screen, is an exhilarating challenge,” says the actor, weeks after the makers announced Mirzapur—The Movie.

As Gurmmeet Singh, who has directed most episodes over its three-season run, wields the directorial baton, Pankaj Tripathi aka Kaleen bhaiyya will lead the movie alongside Ali Fazal and Divyenndu. Interestingly, even though Banerjee’s Compounder and Divyenndu’s Munna met their deaths in the first and second season respectively, the two fan-favourite characters are being reprised for the big screen. Banerjee notes, “Very rarely do actors get to play a character all over again, for a whole different audience, and bring him back from the dead to do so. Compounder’s story has so much depth and rawness, and I know fans have longed to see more of him. Bringing him back is not only thrilling for me as an actor, but it’s also a way of giving fans what they’ve been asking for.”