Sanjay Leela Bhansali explains his fixation with love triangles

Sanjay Leela Bhansali is fascinated with love triangles, first Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, then Devdas, followed by Saawariya and now Bajirao Mastani. There’s something about unrequited love that makes him revisit the subject over and over again. And other filmmakers who don’t own up to their obsessions, Sanjay accepts them.

He smiles, “ I think this will continue all my life. I really don’t know why I am so attracted towards it, is it a personal state of mind to go into this zone. But yes I pick up stories where the love story does not necessarily end but for me that’s the happiest end the love story could have.”

He continues, “If Devdas came and died outside Paro’s house to see one glimpse of her, then that’s a happier ending for me than a far more greater ending of a man in love with a woman holding her hand and going into a sunset. That tribute Devdas gave to love, to see that vision of her before he died, that is true love. Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam had the same premise. I think the incompleteness of these love stories that attracts me immensely. If it’s complete, it’s not love, I lose interest in it. The greatest stories like Romeo Juliet, Heer Ranjha, Sohni Mahiwal can never be complete because it is the feeling of being in love, not getting that love and then dying or separating... That for me is the highest form of love and it fascinates me. It’s pure love. I don’t do love stories where the hero or heroine has options or a plan B, I didn’t get you so now I moved on to the other person. This doesn’t work for me. All the films I have done are of pure unadulterated love."