Sultan of Delhi () is an Indian Hindi-language period crime thriller television series written by Suparn Verma and directed by Milan Luthria and produced by Namit Sharma under the banner of Reliance Entertainment. The series is set in Delhi in the year 1962 and is based on writer Arnab Ray's book Sultan of Delhi: Ascension, and stars an ensemble cast including Tahir Raj Bhasin, Mouni Roy, Anjum Sharma, Vinay Pathak, Anupriya Goenka, Nishant Dahiya, Mehreen Pirzada and Harleen Sethi. It is scheduled to premiere on Disney+ Hotstar on 13 October 2023.
Plot
The story of Arjun Bhatia, a teenage immigrant from Lahore who works with Delhi's top illicit arms dealer Jagan Seth, is told in the 2023 TV mini-series Sultan of Delhi. The series is based on Arnab Ray's novel Sultan of Delhi: Ascension. The story follows the ascension of a mobster in 1960s Delhi. Arjun is a 1947 Partition survivor who witnessed his family's slaughter. He makes it through the night with his father and arrives at Delhi. The show opens with a gathering of a half-dozen elderly men who oversee the city's underbelly. Farooq Mastaan (Anil George) calls the conference to order and tells the gang leaders to work together. He designates Arjun as the foremost among equals, the guy who will henceforth make the decisions. The series delves into a story of greed, treachery, bravery, and the ultimate struggle for dominance.
Cast
Tahir Raj Bhasin as Arjun Mohindar Bhatia
Mouni Roy as Nayantara Gangopadhyay
Mehreen Pirzada as Sanjana Ranawat
Anjum Sharma as Nilendu Bangopodhya aka Bangaali
Vinay Pathak as Jagaan Lukman Seth
Anupriya Goenka as Shankari Devi aka Chandini
Nishant Dahiya as Rajender Pratap Singh aka RP, son of 'JP' Jewender Partap Singh Shadab Kamal as Vaikunth Harleen Sethi as Preeti Ganmukh patel Sunil Kumar as Ganmukh Madan Patel, Preeti's father Anil George as Farooq Mastaan, an underworld Don Gulshan Pandey as Mr. Tejwani Sunil Palwal as Bhope Sandhu, henchman of Seth Jagaan
Production
The series was announced on Disney+ Hotstar by Reliance Entertainment, consisting of nine episodes. It is based on Arnab Ray's Sultan of Delhi: Ascension (2016). Initially, Neha Sharma was approached to play the female lead. Later, Tahir Raj Bhasin and Mouni Roy were signed as the lead. The launch event for the series was held on 22 September 2023.
Music
Soundtracks are composed by Amaal Mallik, Anu Mallik and Sangeet Siddharth.
Release
The series was released on 13 October 2023 on OTT platform Disney+ Hotstar.
Critical reception
Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV rated the series 1.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "Pulp fiction paraded as a chronicle of a time of immense import, Sultan of Delhi is a rather desultory adaptation of a passable book that has an undeniable sense of history."
Deepa Gahlot for Rediff.com stated "Characters pop in without explanation, like a mysterious white man, Daniel, who wears a pilot's uniform all the time (the costume budget must have run out with Shankari's outfits), and there are bizarre scenes, like Arjun stripping to impress a rival gangster." and rated the series 2.5 stars.
Scroll.in stated "The show likes its racy moments – a distraction from the escalating tedium, perhaps?"