While director Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s first-ever streaming series, the period drama Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar, is earning massive praise from certain quarters, it is also facing significant criticism for its perceived glorification of non-consensual sex, glamourisation of women’s sufferings and aestheticisation of their pain.
Meanwhile, actor Aditi Rao Hydari, who plays a key role in Heeramandi, which features an all-female cast, recently opened up about an instance when Bhansali yelled at her during the shooting of the series and also another instance when the director tried to get Hydari riled up for a scene by not allowing her to eat.
“That happened during the shooting of the first mujra. We started our shoot with ‘Hath hojao‘, which was the first mujra I did. I had also just recovered from Covid at that time. By the end of the first day… the costume was heavy and my brain was not taking in anymore… I could see what he was telling me, I could understand it, but the firing wasn’t happening. But, trust me, what he was saying made complete sense. I was so disappointed in myself because I knew he didn’t get what he wanted. But, just before we wrapped, we got it. My thing here was that he believed so much in us so I never wanted to see him disappointed,” she said during a chat with Bollywood Hungama.
Mentioning that Bhansali used to tease her a lot because it was “really difficult” to get the emotion of anger from her, the actor said, “He used to say, ‘If I say angry scene, she’ll do one love scene with full Shringar bhav,‘ about me. And he’s right. For me, to be angry is the most tiring thing, especially the very outward anger. And I have to be this passionate, rousing girl (here). I have to make all these people (the other characters) believe in what I’m saying.
“One day, we did two-three takes and then he just called me very sweetly and he started speaking to me. I immediately got taken into another world. He speaks very beautifully and he speaks from his heart, so it’s very passionate and I had tears in my eyes. And then he said we were going to shoot this scene and gave everybody a lunch break, except me. He asked, ‘Is that okay?’ I was like, ‘Done’. So I didn’t eat and it really helped me. It kept me on the edge and not soft. So I went back to my van and I just thought about everything that he said. He basically told me a story. I came back and we shot it and it was okay,” she said, adding that she was never at odds with him at any moment.
In her review of the series, The Indian Express’ Shubhra Gupta wrote, “It’s when Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Netflix show turns its eyes on the faded grandeur of its ‘Lahore ki ranis’ in their gilded cages, grime peeking out from behind their finery, that the show is most effective.”
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