Vishal Bhardwaj won immense critical acclaim early on in his career, with the 2003 film Maqbool. The film is based on William Shakespeare's Macbeth, with the Mumbai underworld as its backdrop. The film did not perform remarkably at the box office, but won director Vishal Bhardwaj international recognition.

In Mid-day's latest Sit With Hitlist episode, Bhardwaj revealed that he had to forgo his fees to make the film. There were budget constraints and the filmmaker invested his remuneration in order to make the film the way that he wanted to.