Madhureeta Mukherjee (BOMBAY TIMES; December 17, 2015)
He paints pictures on celluloid, history on film and magic on cinemascope. Leaving footprints on the tinsel sands of an industry that weaves stories for eternity. This enigma called Sanjay Leela Bhansali lives only so that he can capture one more shot, and make one more film. With a stellar cast he unfolds another epic love story, Bajirao Mastani, which has been a 12-year long dream. In this in-depth conversation, he talks about passion and perfection, his fancies and flaws, and reveals the “slightly strange world“ he lives in. And trust me, all this is laced with a sense of humour, far from the intense, brooding man he is known to be. Find out...
You take your obsession for filmmaking to another level. Is it true that during Bajirao Mastani you stopped living a normal life...like watching movies and going to restaurants?
I know nothing other than this. I can't drive a car, I can't even open emails and computers crash around me. I have worked for two years, every day. I run through the whole film in my head each day. It is not just about telling a story, my movies are a summation of all that I have become over the years. Good or bad, I don't know. My movies are personal notes of my whole life. I want to live so that I can capture one more shot, make one more film. I have totally surrendered myself to this.
Would you ever go back and change anything about any of your films?
I would change Khamoshi I was unhappy with a particular person in the cast (not Salman Khan, Manisha Koirala or Seema Biswas); I was quite traumatised and harassed. However, a lot of people think that was my best work as it was pure and not corrupt. I wasn't anybody back then, so they thought I wasn't indulging, but I was terribly upset. I think I didn't make any mistake in Black. There was one mistake in Devdas, but I won't ever tell anyone what it was.
Since Khamoshi, you stopped answering calls on the Friday of your movie release. Has that changed?
I came from nowhere and I struggled to put together a huge star cast for my first film. On the day of the release, I was informed, “Picture baith gayi hai.“ At first I didn't know what that meant, then it hit me and I was devastated. Those words have stayed with me. They came back to haunt me with Saawariya. But by then I was tougher, and I realised that your film can collapse, but your idea can't collapse, based on others' opinions. From Guzaarish onwards, I have started answering calls. But on such Fridays I tell people, “Don't call me.“ The scars still remain.
Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone say that you push them to the edge, sometimes even causing a breakdown. Yet, they want to work with you.
I believe that when you are pursuing that moment of magic on celluloid, you have to find something more and give it everything you have. If you don't want to give that to yourself and the audience...then you should not be working at all, leave alone with me. I cast people like them who are searching for excellence. If you don't search, you will have nothing to give. If one shot of walking across the room can take a whole day, I am ready to do it, even if the producers panic.
This is exactly my next question. A grand vision comes with massive budgets. Do numbers put pressure on your creativity?
I believe that I have spent every rupee deservingly, on every inch of my frame. When a film deserves the budget, we give it that much. Black didn't need the scale of Devdas or Bajirao Mastani. My team doesn't splurge, or go to fancy hotels to write. Every paisa goes into the film. Why do we say itne paise mein mat banao, log kya dekhenge? Our viewers are far more evolved than any producer or director in the country, who think that they have made the best film. My films might not be the biggest blockbusters, but I realise that my audience connects with me.
You are considered one of the most indulgent filmmakers in the industry. How do you react to it?
I am not indulgent. I think constructing a scene elaborately - with art, costume and visual drama - is not indulgence. Other people should do it too. Maybe others are not giving it all they have. If you say that creating the Taj Mahal is indulgence, then it is - in the eyes of the world. If you say he loved her and so he created a monument - then it is a monument. It is the way you look at it. What others call indulgence, I call commitment; the two should not be confused.
Do you feel jealous after seeing other filmmakers' work?
I liked Anand Gandhi's work in Ship of Theseus. I thought why didn't I make a film like this? I am capable of making this because I know which zone it is coming from. I like Anurag Basu's work, and Shoojit Sircar's Piku. I don't see too many films made by my contemporaries, but I get jealous when I see a good one. The genre is different and I can't compare, but I'm competitive. So I feel I have to go beyond it. I think to myself...this film is good but I hope the director's mind doesn't work in his next (laughs!).
Talking about competitiveness, Priyanka and Deepika said that you sulked because the two of them were bonding too much?
I was expecting their chairs to be back-to-back, making catty remarks about each other. I wanted some drama to unfold. Instead, they were like giggly schoolgirls. I wanted them to be competitive in the song Pinga. I know both of them are competitive in their minds. I told them...it's not that you both are really all plain Jane and simple, so show me that. But they didn't budge. Sigh! So, I said... go ahead and gossip about your shopping.
Bajirao Mastani has been caught in a string of controversies. Isn't it frustrating?
A film on a Maratha warrior on such a canvas has never been made. Leaving a handful of people, the rest will understand the spirit of this film. My films are like musicals, so there will be song and dance, but they are not meant to hurt anybody's sentiments. We are not being insensitive or writing off the greatness of the warrior. I have seen footage of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi dancing in some place with locals, and the purpose is to reassure people that as leaders they are also like one of them. Bajirao was a great warrior (he was not a King); he lived with the soldiers and celebrated their victory. And if the celebration is shown through dance and music, why are people objecting to it? Why is it being looked upon strangely? It doesn't take away from the history.
Sanjay, there is this perception of you being intense and angry all the time. It's far from the real you, right?
I love humour and I can laugh at myself. After the whole day, I need to detox all my intensity. I don't know why I am portrayed as someone who is a little off in the head. I am aware that I don't have good social skills, I don't meet any directors. I don't interact much. I don't call them. When I meet people I don't know what to say, and they think I am dull, boring or simply disinterested. I live in a slightly strange world. When I am talking to you my perspective is different. I am thinking if you were sitting somewhere else, the setting could be different and I could have seen you more clearly. I can't ever stop being a filmmaker. I am seen less, I talk less, and I hardly interact with the media, so people outside the industry form their opinion based on the movies I make. They don't know that I can laugh at myself. I know how funny I can be and how funny I can look at times. I am tired of this image, and I want people's perception of me to change soon.
You take your obsession for filmmaking to another level. Is it true that during Bajirao Mastani you stopped living a normal life...like watching movies and going to restaurants?
I know nothing other than this. I can't drive a car, I can't even open emails and computers crash around me. I have worked for two years, every day. I run through the whole film in my head each day. It is not just about telling a story, my movies are a summation of all that I have become over the years. Good or bad, I don't know. My movies are personal notes of my whole life. I want to live so that I can capture one more shot, make one more film. I have totally surrendered myself to this.
Would you ever go back and change anything about any of your films?
I would change Khamoshi I was unhappy with a particular person in the cast (not Salman Khan, Manisha Koirala or Seema Biswas); I was quite traumatised and harassed. However, a lot of people think that was my best work as it was pure and not corrupt. I wasn't anybody back then, so they thought I wasn't indulging, but I was terribly upset. I think I didn't make any mistake in Black. There was one mistake in Devdas, but I won't ever tell anyone what it was.
Since Khamoshi, you stopped answering calls on the Friday of your movie release. Has that changed?
I came from nowhere and I struggled to put together a huge star cast for my first film. On the day of the release, I was informed, “Picture baith gayi hai.“ At first I didn't know what that meant, then it hit me and I was devastated. Those words have stayed with me. They came back to haunt me with Saawariya. But by then I was tougher, and I realised that your film can collapse, but your idea can't collapse, based on others' opinions. From Guzaarish onwards, I have started answering calls. But on such Fridays I tell people, “Don't call me.“ The scars still remain.
Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone say that you push them to the edge, sometimes even causing a breakdown. Yet, they want to work with you.
I believe that when you are pursuing that moment of magic on celluloid, you have to find something more and give it everything you have. If you don't want to give that to yourself and the audience...then you should not be working at all, leave alone with me. I cast people like them who are searching for excellence. If you don't search, you will have nothing to give. If one shot of walking across the room can take a whole day, I am ready to do it, even if the producers panic.
This is exactly my next question. A grand vision comes with massive budgets. Do numbers put pressure on your creativity?
I believe that I have spent every rupee deservingly, on every inch of my frame. When a film deserves the budget, we give it that much. Black didn't need the scale of Devdas or Bajirao Mastani. My team doesn't splurge, or go to fancy hotels to write. Every paisa goes into the film. Why do we say itne paise mein mat banao, log kya dekhenge? Our viewers are far more evolved than any producer or director in the country, who think that they have made the best film. My films might not be the biggest blockbusters, but I realise that my audience connects with me.
You are considered one of the most indulgent filmmakers in the industry. How do you react to it?
I am not indulgent. I think constructing a scene elaborately - with art, costume and visual drama - is not indulgence. Other people should do it too. Maybe others are not giving it all they have. If you say that creating the Taj Mahal is indulgence, then it is - in the eyes of the world. If you say he loved her and so he created a monument - then it is a monument. It is the way you look at it. What others call indulgence, I call commitment; the two should not be confused.
Do you feel jealous after seeing other filmmakers' work?
I liked Anand Gandhi's work in Ship of Theseus. I thought why didn't I make a film like this? I am capable of making this because I know which zone it is coming from. I like Anurag Basu's work, and Shoojit Sircar's Piku. I don't see too many films made by my contemporaries, but I get jealous when I see a good one. The genre is different and I can't compare, but I'm competitive. So I feel I have to go beyond it. I think to myself...this film is good but I hope the director's mind doesn't work in his next (laughs!).
Talking about competitiveness, Priyanka and Deepika said that you sulked because the two of them were bonding too much?
I was expecting their chairs to be back-to-back, making catty remarks about each other. I wanted some drama to unfold. Instead, they were like giggly schoolgirls. I wanted them to be competitive in the song Pinga. I know both of them are competitive in their minds. I told them...it's not that you both are really all plain Jane and simple, so show me that. But they didn't budge. Sigh! So, I said... go ahead and gossip about your shopping.
Bajirao Mastani has been caught in a string of controversies. Isn't it frustrating?
A film on a Maratha warrior on such a canvas has never been made. Leaving a handful of people, the rest will understand the spirit of this film. My films are like musicals, so there will be song and dance, but they are not meant to hurt anybody's sentiments. We are not being insensitive or writing off the greatness of the warrior. I have seen footage of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi dancing in some place with locals, and the purpose is to reassure people that as leaders they are also like one of them. Bajirao was a great warrior (he was not a King); he lived with the soldiers and celebrated their victory. And if the celebration is shown through dance and music, why are people objecting to it? Why is it being looked upon strangely? It doesn't take away from the history.
Sanjay, there is this perception of you being intense and angry all the time. It's far from the real you, right?
I love humour and I can laugh at myself. After the whole day, I need to detox all my intensity. I don't know why I am portrayed as someone who is a little off in the head. I am aware that I don't have good social skills, I don't meet any directors. I don't interact much. I don't call them. When I meet people I don't know what to say, and they think I am dull, boring or simply disinterested. I live in a slightly strange world. When I am talking to you my perspective is different. I am thinking if you were sitting somewhere else, the setting could be different and I could have seen you more clearly. I can't ever stop being a filmmaker. I am seen less, I talk less, and I hardly interact with the media, so people outside the industry form their opinion based on the movies I make. They don't know that I can laugh at myself. I know how funny I can be and how funny I can look at times. I am tired of this image, and I want people's perception of me to change soon.
