After nearly 20 years of waiting patiently, Sanjay Leela Bhansali finally decided to make one of his dream projects, Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar. Heeramandi marked Bhansali’s debut on OTT and has been all the rage since its release. However, did you know that Bhansali nearly lost the project to David Dhawan?
In a recent chat, Bhansali told Hindustan Times, “Aditya Pancholi brought Moin Beg to my house and said he’s written something special and only you can make it. I said there’s nothing like that.” This was when Bhansali had just made Devdas. However, instead of following suit with Heeramandi, he decided to make Black.
“Whenever I announced a new film, Moin would call me. ‘You are not making Heeramandi? Now, you’ve started another film. Now, you’ve started Ram-Leela (2013)! Now you’ve started Bajirao Mastani (2015)! And now, you’ve started Padmaavat (2018)!’ Then he just threatened me that he’d take the script away and give it to David Dhawan,” he said.
Bhansali decided to make Heeramandi after the project was green-lit by Netflix’s CEO, Ted Sarandos. This meeting took place before the release of Gangubai Kathiawadi in Los Angeles and only lasted five minutes.
The director added, “The script would come out every 2-3 years. But I always said to myself that this is very big. It needs a lot of time – 3,4 or 5 hours. Luckily, when this format (of OTT) started opening up and becoming popular, my mind kept thinking maybe this is the right place to make Heeramandi.”
Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Heeramandi was released on Netflix on May 1. Its stars Manisha Koirala, Sonakshi Sinha, Aditi Rao Hydari, Sanjeeda Sheikh, Richa Chadha and Sharmin Segal in the lead. It also features Farheen Khan, Taha Shah Badussha, Shekhar Suman and Adhyayan Suman in key roles.
His upcoming project is the film Love & War, starring Alia Bhatt, Ranbir Kapoor, and Vicky Kaushal. Officially announced in January 2024, SLB recently provided an update on the movie’s music during an interview, revealing that he has composed a song for it.
In a recent interview with Galatta Plus, describing the process as extremely “spontaneous”, “erratic” and “chaotic”, Sanjay Leela Bhansali remarked, “I have created a song for Love & War, and I don’t know where I’ll fit it in, but I have created it. And now I’ll find a way, and I know that song has to be in the film, and without that song, the film would be incomplete.”
The film reunites Bhansali and Ranbir Kapoor after 17 years and marks the filmmaker’s first film with Vicky Kaushal. Bhansali reunites with Alia Bhatt after the success of Gangubai Kathiawadi. With Love and War, Ranbir and Vicky reunite on the big screen after Sanju and Ranbir and Alia are paired together after Brahmastra. The film is slated to release on Christmas 2025.
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