India, May 19 -- In the early 2000s, Bollywood was dominated by glossy romances, extravagant song sequences and larger-than-life heroes. Then came Chandni Bar, a film that stripped away glamour and forced audiences to confront the harsh realities hidden behind Mumbai's neon lights.

Released in 2001, the film became one of the most powerful crime dramas Hindi cinema had seen at the time. Directed by filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar, Chandni Bar explored the brutal world of dance bars, organised crime, police violence and generational poverty with an honesty that felt deeply unsettling for mainstream audiences. More than two decades later, the film is once again back in conversations, this time because of reports around a possible sequel and a ...