Bandish Bandits

Bandish Bandits is an Indian musical romantic drama television series on Amazon Prime Video created by Amritpal Singh Bindra and Anand Tiwari, produced by Still & Still Moving Pictures and directed by Anand Tiwari. The script was written by Bindra, Tiwari and Lara Chandni. The series features debutants Ritwik Bhowmik as Radhe Rathod, a Hindustani Classical musician and Shreya Chaudhry as Tamanna Sharma, a pop singer, who hail from different worlds of music. Exploring the debate of music being a discipline versus a means of liberation. The series also features Naseeruddin Shah, Sheeba Chaddha and Atul Kulkarni.

The series was officially announced in February 2019, and principal photography took place across Jodhpur and Bikaner in Rajasthan. The first season's soundtrack album and background score is composed by Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy, in their debut for scoring music for a streaming series, and the soundtrack album received positive reviews from critics.

Bandish Bandits released on 4 August 2020, through Amazon Prime Video. The series received a positive response from critics and audiences, praising the performances of the cast, writing and direction, songs and background score. It was listed by critics as one of the best Indian television shows of 2020. The series was nominated for seven Filmfare OTT Awards, including Best Supporting Actor for Shah, Best Supporting Actress for Chaddha and Best Original Story and Best Screenplay. In September 2020, it was officially renewed for a second season. On 23 December 2022 Amazon Prime Video tweeted that the production of second season has begun. On May 19, 2023, Ritwik Bhowmik posted on his Instagram story (where he tagged Anand Tiwari) that they were in the "last few days" of production. Since then, Ritwik Bhowmik has posted on his Instagram story that Season 2 is "imminent."

On 8 November 2024, Amazon Prime Video launched a recap video of the first season, and announced that the second season would be released soon. The second season released on 13 December 2024.

On 14 February 2019, Vijay Subramaniam, chief director and head of content of Amazon Prime Video India, announced the release of six Indian originals, at the Television Critics Association's press tour held in Los Angeles, California. It was produced by Still and Still Moving Pictures, with the series created by Amritpal Singh Bindra and Anand Tiwari, who previously collaborated for Netflix film Love per Square Foot (2018), while Tiwari helmed the series. Bindra eventually stated that "The show is a millennial love story set against the backdrop of a clash between pop and Hindustani classical music. Based in Jodhpur, it explores the central theme of whether music is discipline or is it liberation." On 18 February 2019, the makers announced that Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy would compose music for the series, making their debut on a digital platform.

To play the lead characters Radhe and Tamanna, the makers hired debutants Ritwik Bhowmik and Shreya Chaudhary. Shreya opened up about what drew her to the script stating, "The script chose me. I was immediately sold when I came to know about the director and the cast. And things got even better when I read it. Tamannah is very different from Shreya, so that was exciting. Moreover, this is a romantic show woven around music and that aspect was very fresh for me." Ritwik eventually took no time to give his nod to the project, after revealing details about the director and cast. He further stated "There were 10 blueprints that I had to go through in order to get Radhe right. It took time to understand him as he is very far off from who I am in my life. It is about relationship dynamics, art versus exhibitionism, mediocrity versus genius among other things." The two actors were trained under musician Akshit Parikh, who also made a cameo in the series.

Principal photography began in December 2018. The series were primarily shot in Jodhpur and Bikaner in Rajasthan. From its very first episode, the series had captured several traditional Rajasthani elements which include traditional paintings, couches, walls, huts and palaces. The makers shot few scenes at the Lakshmi Vilas Palace located in Vadodara, and some of the scenes were shot at the deserts located in Bikaner district. In an interview with a media portal, actor Ritwik Bhowmik described his experience at the desserts of Bikaner. Bhowmik said that the team filmed one of the ragas in the Bikaner desert during the peak of summer. However, when the team was shooting the raga, it started to rain. Bhowmik said that this was "one of the most divine and magical experiences of his life". Shooting wrapped up in June 2019.^{[citation needed]}

The music for the first season ofBandish Bandits was composed by Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy, in their debut composition for a streaming series. On their inclusion, the composers stated that the background score will work in tandem to the story-line and building the scenes, the songs in this series form a part of the core narrative. The 11-song soundtrack album features lyrics by Divyanshu Malhotra, Tanishk S Nabar, Sameer Samant and also consists traditional verses. The soundtrack album was released on 27 July 2020, and received positive response from critics. Devarsi Ghosh of Scroll.in opined that "The blend of easy-listening pop and soaring semi-classical tunes brings to mind the trio's vast body of work". Baradwaj Rangan of Film Companion praised the album as a "magnificent east-meets-west soundtrack". Karthik Srinivasan of Milliblog hailed as "one of the best soundtracks in Hindi in recent times". Vipin Nair of Music Aloud reviewed as "a solid piece of work, despite noty being an extraordinary work by the trio (Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa), when it comes to classical fusion".