The series opened to eventually positive response from audiences, while critics gave mixed reviews to the series. The first season of Mirzapur was released on 16 November 2018. John Stewart Eduri composed the background score. Sanjay Kapoor served as the cinematographer, with Manan Mehta and Anshul Gupta edited the series.
The series was filmed mostly across Uttar Pradesh, primarily shot in Mirzapur, and many locations which include Jaunpur, Azamgarh, Ghazipur, Lucknow, Raebareli, Gorakhpur, and Varanasi. In the first season, it features Pankaj Tripathi, Shweta Tripathi, Divyendu Sharma, Ali Fazal, Vikrant Massey, Shriya Pilgaonkar, Rasika Dugal, Harshita Gaur and Kulbhushan Kharbanda, whereas the second season retains the principal cast from the first season, excluding Massey and Pilgaonkar, with new cast consisting of Vijay Varma, Isha Talwar, Lilliput, Anjum Sharma, Priyanshu Painyuli, Anangsha Biswas and Neha Sargam. The series chronicles the events which follows. The story follows the rule of Akhandanand Tripathi (Pankaj Tripathi), also known as Kaleen Bhaiya, the mafia don and proverbial ruler of Mirzapur in the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh. The series is Amazon Prime Video's third Indian original after Inside Edge and Breathe. The series is produced by Rithesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar of Excel Entertainment. Anshuman directed the first season of the series, along with Gurmmeet Singh and Mihit Desai, who also directed the second season of the series. Mirzapur is an Indian Hindi-language action crime thriller streaming television series on Amazon Prime Video, created by Karan Anshuman, who wrote the script along with Puneet Krishna and Vineet Krishna.