When A Girl Speaks Up, She Becomes A Threat: Anuja Sathe Of Ek Thi Begum 2

Anuja Sathe in Spotlight: Crime-drama series Ek Thi Begum is back with a bang for its second season after a successful first outing. Diving into the underbelly of the underworld in 1980s Bombay, the series takes viewers through themes of revenge, justice, rage, love and resilience - with a daring woman at the centre of it all.

The first season of the show, available for viewing in both Hindi and Marathi, revolved around a woman named Ashraf Bhatkar, who vows to avenge the death of her husband, Zaheer who is killed by his mafia bosses. She sets off on a quest of breaking the glass ceiling of brutal masculinity called Mumbai’s Underworld, unravelling in the process a dirty ecosystem of law enforcement and politics that is complicit in keeping the mafia running.

Season two sees Ashraf, played by actor Anuja Sathe, get her hands down and dirty, teaming up with local goons under the alias ‘Leela Paswan’, biding time to bring down the empire of Maqsood, the strongman responsible for Zaheer’s death.

Watch the trailer for Ek Thi Begum season 2 here:

Created and directed by Sachin Darekar and Vishal Modhave, Ek Thi Begum 2 claims it is inspired from true events. It also stars Shahab Ali, Chinmay Mandlekar, Vijay Nikam, Ajay Gehi in significant roles.

Anuja, who plays the show’s gutsy lead Ashraf Bhatkar, tells SheThePeople in an interview that her character’s intelligence is her biggest weapon. “The way Ashraf has found her way out from every situation is basically an intelligent move,” she says.

On why it is often difficult for women to speak up and society to accept when they fight for justice, Sathe adds, “If a girl speaks up, she becomes a threat. And when men realise that a woman in front of them has become unstoppable, somewhere the male ego is hurt, and that same thing happened in our series.”

Through the first season, Ashraf faces ridicule from people around her, who express low faith in a woman taking on dangerous criminals on her own. “That’s when something triggered inside her and she said now I’m going to take the law in my hands. Every character in the series kept underestimating her till she came out as this person who is unstoppable,” Anuja says.

In this second binge-worthy season, viewers will witness Ashraf as a force to reckon with attacking a legion of men whose powerful positions her vengeance threatens. All twelve episodes in Ek Thi Begum’s season 2 are now streaming for Free on MX Player.