Filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali has always been known for his opulent and larger than life style of filmmaking, something he says ‘comes from the fact that he wants to have more space’ in life.
Filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali has always been known for his opulent and larger than life style of filmmaking, something he says ‘comes from the fact that he wants to have more space’ in life. “It has perhaps got to do with the fact that we live in such claustrophobic spaces. My films are larger-than-life, big, grand and huge because I want to have that much more space in life. I want to break-free, look beyond the horizon and have my own space to create,” he says in an interview with DNA. Excerpts:
Your film Devdas has made it to Time Magazine’s top 10 list of films. Did you expect this kind of adulation?
Not at all. When you make a film, you only think if you have been able to do justice or not. You make a film that you can be proud of and I am very proud of Devdas. Looking back, I am actually thankful that with the amount of problems we faced back then, the film got completed and released. It’s wonderful when after 10 years, in some part of the world; someone is still watching your film. It’s overwhelming.
Is it disheartening when you receive appreciation from other parts of the world while the local audience rejects your film?
Well, to be honest, it is disappointing. You do want the audience that you make the film for, to see it, like it and enjoy it. But appreciation in any form is wonderful. Guzaarish wasn’t very well appreciated here, but I think it is one of those films that worked wonderfully well abroad. It can get a little upsetting when people in some other parts of the world understand the film and the very people you make it for, don’t. But you can’t sit moping around. There is also another point I’d want to make. Films all over the world are reviewed on Monday and not Friday, so that the film is able to recover its cost in the first weekend.
What prompted you to produce Rowdy Rathore?
The script of the film was fresh and exciting. I saw the original version in Tamil and I decided I wanted to make a film like that. Also, I think Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha have done a fabulous job. It is one of those films I wanted to make the minute I saw them.
You are on most actors’ to-work-with wish list...
Contrary to reports that I am a taskmaster and a strict director, I am a very giving director. I do not pressurise my actors to do anything. I give them their space and time to improvise. But if there is anything that gets done in a way I do not appreciate, at a time when I require absolute concentration, then any director in the world will flip. If you don’t have that kind of attitude to work then what passion for films are you talking about?
You are also venturing into TV production. How is that coming along?
By God’s grace, everything has been going good. The show (based on the popular Gujarati novel Saraswatichandra by Govardhanram Madhavaram Tripathi) will come out by September this year. I am in a happy space right now. After this I also have Shirin Farhad Ki Nikal Padi with Farah Khan and Boman Irani.
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