For nearly 20 years, Mumbai has been home to actor Richa Chadha. It is the city that gave her a career, a family and countless memories. Yet, while putting together her new production, she realised that she barely knew it. She discovered a second-century BC Buddhist stupa hidden on the city’s outskirts. She revisited Gilbert Hill, the 65-million-year-old volcanic formation that most Mumbaikars pass without a second glance. She learnt how the city’s seven islands became one —  how decisions made centuries ago still dictate the Mumbai we inhabit today, and found herself listening to communities whose stories rarely make it into history books.

That journey has now become Musafiri, an 8-part travel and culture series that premieres on August 15. The non-fiction series is charmed by the lesson known parts of Mumbai. Across eight episodes, Chadha speaks to historians, researchers, heritage enthusiasts and local communities to uncover the city’s overlooked histories and sub-cultures —  from the Adivasi communities of Aarey and the Armenian churches of Mumbai to places that have quietly survived modernisation.