India, Sept. 30 -- When "Mirzapur" first arrived on Prime Video in 2018, its world of gang wars, guns and rural Uttar Pradesh drew immediate comparisons with Anurag Kashyap's "Gangs of Wasseypur", with some viewers even dismissing the series as a "cheap imitation", director Gurmmeet Singh recalled.

Singh, who directed the popular crime drama and its recent big-screen adaptation "Mirzapur: The Movie", said the comparison became particularly noticeable around the release of the show's first season.

"We started to hear (about it) a lot more during the release of season one. Many saw the trailer and said that it looks like a cheap imitation of 'Wasseypur', then it sort of hit us: 'Is that true'?" Singh told PTI in an interview.

The similar...