With his vast and magnificent settings and larger-than-life vision, Sanjay Leela Bhansali has completely reinvented narrative. He has been praised for his fastidious nature by several performers who have worked with him, but he has also been accused of being “short-tempered” and having “anger issues.”
Actor Shekhar Suman responded to reports that Bhansali was a strict taskmaster in a recent interview with Siddharth Kannan, saying, “He’s not a madman, but a perfectionist and you will always notice that perfectionists are always short-tempered.” Sharmin Segal, Bhansali’s niece and a major character in Heeramandi, has various thoughts about the director. She seems to be responding to Shekhar when she claims that perfectionism is “a very basic word” to characterise Bhansali in an exclusive interview with News18 Showsha.
It’s the kind of word that someone who hasn’t collaborated with him, seen his set, or witnessed the type of director he is would use. He is incredibly flexible. He enjoys pushing himself to do new things. Being flawless is not important to him, she explains to us.
“He looks for rawness, magic, and freedom,” she goes on. He also wouldn’t have handled spontaneity and instinctiveness the way he does if he was just a perfectionist. He is very grateful for such things. I wouldn’t characterise him as a totally perfectionist, therefore.
Segal feels that Bhansali’s perseverance and commitment to realising his vision are frequently misinterpreted, which is unfair. “He is an extremely diligent man with unrivalled perseverance.” As a result, you have to give all you’ve got to keep up with him, and he pushes and demands the same of those around him. He is giving it his best and using all of his mental faculties for creativity. Sanjay Leela Bhansali is often categorised as a perfectionist, but that label doesn’t really capture who he is, says the performer, who made her feature debut in Bhansali’s Malang.
Many performers have admitted to being the targets of his whims and rage, raising concerns over the years about the working conditions on his set. Segal dispels the notion around it by saying, “He treats camera people, spot boys, and technicians with a lot of respect.” We don’t recognise the labour done by the personnel behind the scenes. The class of actors is privileged. We are unaware of this, but the lighting and art teams arrive on the set three to four hours before we do, and they only go after we have finished disassembling everything.
The recently married actor says, “That goes unnoticed on most sets,” in reference to his crew’s decision to work longer shifts on the Heeramandi sets. However, many are eager to work two or three additional hours beyond a twelve-hour shift on Sanjay Sir’s set. They take this action out of respect for him and the work he is doing. This is unique to me and what I observe occurring here. Because of this, I believe it is a little simplistic to characterise him as a “temperamental perfectionist.”
On May 1, Heeramandi will make its Netflix debut.
