Ek Thi Begum

Ek Thi Begum,[1] an MX Original Series, is a story of a stunningly beautiful woman played by Anuja Sathe. She plays the role of Ashraf aka Sapna, the loving wife of Zaheer played by Ankit Mohan[2] – a once confidante of Maqsood, the underworld don, but now an arch rival. When the rift between the rivals reaches ugly culmination Zaheer gets killed. Ashraf vows to overturn and destroy Masood’s illegal empire using her beauty, sensuality and acute intelligence. Ek Thi Begum is inspired by true events created,[3] written and directed by Sachin Darekar. It was made available for streaming on MX Player for free from 8 April 2020. On September 20, 2021, MX Player unveiled the full trailer for Ek Thi Begum 2 and on 30 September 2021, the second season was released on their platform.

Ek Thi Begum
GenreCrime
Thriller
Based onSapna Didi
Written bySachin Darekar
Directed by
  • Sachin Darekar & Jai Tank
Starring
Music byAmitraj, Javed Ali, Sunidhi Chauhan
Country of originIndia
Original languageMarathi
No. of seasons2
No. of episodes26
Production
Executive producerManish Bhogate
ProducerNinad Raikar
Production locationIndia
Running time434.46 mins
Production companyTimes Studio
Release
Original networkMX Player
Original release8 April 2020 (2020-04-08) 
30 September 2021 (2021-09-30)

Plot

Ek thi Begum is based on a real life ‘untold’ story of a stunningly beautiful woman – Ashraf Bhatkar, born to a poor family in Aurangabad and raised in Bombay.[4] She became the loving wife of Zaheer – a once confidante of Maqsood but now his arch-rival. Maqsood is the biggest mafia, underworld don who operates his giant drug cartel in India from Dubai. When the rift between Maqsood and Zaheer reaches ugly culminations, Maqsood succeeds in cunningly eliminating Zaheer. In a fake encounter, on 26 July 1986, staged by police officers, Zaheer is picked up from the airport by cops and taken away to a secluded location and finally killed. Ashraf fights hard to secure justice but fails against the might of the mafia and political bigwigs. She vows to overturn and destroy Masood’s illegal empire. Using her beauty, sensuality and acute intelligence, she meticulously plans and executes dramatic strategies undertaking the role of a police informer. Ashraf becomes the biggest informer for the police and the biggest thorn in the flesh for Maqsood. Blinded with vengeance she becomes a powerful force of domination and influence. She also marries a police officer Vikram Bhosle.

Ashraf acquires so much information and prepares a file that has names and proof, which threatens to expose the nexus between politicians, corrupt cops and the mafia. To avoid the ultimate expose, an attempt to kill Ashraf takes place and the file is however not found.

Ek Thi Begum is inspired by true events and all episodes went live on 8 April 2020.

Cast and characters

Actors Character
Anuja Sathe Ashraf Bhatkar
Ankit Mohan Zaheer Bhatkar
Shahab Ali Shakeel Ansari
Mir Sarwar Nari Khan
Vijay Nikam Bhai Chavan
Sauraseni Maitra Anita Surve
Hitesh Bhojraj Ashwin Surve
Chinmay Mandlekar Vikram Bhosale
Rajendra Shisatkar Nana Mhatre
Resham Anjali Dixit
Abhijeet Chavan Insp. Tawde
Pradip Doiphode Insp. Bhoir
Vitthal Kale Iqbal Khan
Nazarr Khan Rashid
Anil Nagarkar Bhau Nare
Santosh Juvekar Sawtya
Suchit Jadhav Tandel
Ajay Gehi Maqsood
Raju Aathavle Bala Mama
Amitraj Raghu Mhatre
Deepak Karanjikar Commissioner Gokhale
Vivek Aapte Dandekar
Advait Dadarkar Rishi
Shivraj Walvekar Ganpatrao Kadam
Vishal Kulthe Shirodkar
Pratibha Goregaonkar Zaheer Ammi
Ashok Sawant Zaheer Abu
Amir Tadwalkar Sulu Potya
Aashay Kulkarni Victor
Abhijeet Jhunjaarrao Adv. Deshmukh
Sagar Kale Adv. Salvi
Apurva Choudhary Reshma
Kalyani Vyakatesh Sweety
Anjali Banarjee Nisha
Suhas Deshpande Dr. Sheikh
Kishore Pednekar Judge Joshi
Ratnakant Nadkarni Judge Gupte
Ritesh Bene Bandya Jadhav
Vikas Sonawne Hawaldar Rane
Pratap Kalke Constable Shinde
Aslam Wadkar Constable Pawar
Mahesh Rahale Ravi Anna
Prashant Loke Rokde Khabari
Deepti Dhotre Sarika
Mitali Kalaagi Maria
Asit Redij Waman Joshi
Sanket Pathare Yussuf Sayyed
Sajid Hussain Linemen Mishra
Ashutosh Suryavanshi Rangya
Raghu Jagtap Baban
Vaibhav Ambekar Manoj

Marketing and Release

Promotion

The official trailer of the web series was launched on 6 April 2020, by MX Player on YouTube. On 20 September 2021, the official trailer of the second season was released on the official Youtube account of MX Player

Release

Ek Thi Begum was made available for free streaming on MX Player from 8 April 2020. On 30 September 2021, MX Player released the second season on their platform.

Critical response

The Scroll.in in a review of Ek Thi Begum, wrote, "Ek Thi Begum is hard-pressed to answer these questions despite 14 episodes at its disposal and the promise of a second season. Despite ample opportunities, Ek Thi Begum turns out to be a damp squib that ultimately adds little to the gangster canon in popular culture."[5]

References

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