Royal and opulent sets, characters defining legacies, dialogues that steal your heart, and cinema that is motion poetry. His movies are breathtaking which portray anything but “Normal”. The man is in himself – a plethora of characters with stories brimming in the edges of his mind, waiting to spill on the silver screen. He is a highly celebrated director, producer, screen writer and Music Director.
Ring a bell?
Well, it is none other than the epitome of creative success and perfection – Sanjay Leela Bhansali.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali is one of the most successful directors of the Indian Film Fraternity as of today. The man has the vision of a story teller and he knows exactly how to physically manifest his vision in his movies. Such vision cannot go unrewarded and thus his work is acclaimed nationally as well as internationally. Bhansali has received 4 National Film Awards, several Filmfare, IIFA, and has been critically acclaimed for a lot of his works throughout his career. He also received the fourth highest civilian award “Padma Shri” in 2015 for his production Mary Kom. His work is such that it pleases the critics and wins the hearts of the audience thereby acclaiming worldwide appreciation.
Bhansali had initially started his career as an Assistant Director under Vidhu Vinod Chopra in the film Parinda and 1942: A love story but, he made his directorial debut with Khamoshi : The Musical (1996). The movie starred Nana Patekar, Manisha Koirala, Salman Khan, Seema Biswas, and Helen. As is evident, it had a very strong star cast. However, the movie did not do well commercially. Though it received positive reviews from the critics, it could not reach out to the general audience. This failure in the initial stage of his career was taken very seriously by Bhansali. He was devastated and completely thrown off guard during this time. But, that loss was a major lesson of his life and it laid the foundation of his journey of ‘larger than life’ cinematic projects.
In 1999, Bhansali released Hum Dil De Chukey Sanam, a love story that depicted a love triangle between Salman Khan, Aishwarya Rai, and Ajay Devgan. The movie was a massive hit and did tremendously well commercially. Devdas (2002) followed, which was another spell-binding tale of unconditional love. The film was a magnificent creation with expensive sets, costumes, and jewellery. Richness overflowed in the movie in every aspect may it be creativity, literature, music, or design. The film even made an International mark as it received nomination for British Academy of Film and Television Award (BAFTA) under best foreign language film category. It was screened at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.
Fun Fact: Devdas (2002) entered the Bollywood’s 100 Crore Club way back in 2002 even before the 100 Crore Club was aa phenomenon.
An alumnus of Film and Television Institute (FTII), Bhansali released another fine piece of art, ‘Black’ starring Rani Mukherjee and Amitabh Bachhan in 2005. Black won 11 Filmfare awards. The movie made a record of being the first single film to receive the highest number of Filmfare Awards. Black was based on an unusual concept and yet it was received well by the audience.
In 2007, Sanjay Leela Bhansali launched two newcomers – Sonam Kapoor and Ranbir Kapoor in his project Saawariya. Saawariya turned out be a bump in his career that was till then smoothly going uphill. It received a lot of flak from film critics and audience alike.
Bhansali claims that by now he has learnt enough to neither loose his mind over his failures nor let his success take him over the top. He credits this attainment of sense and sensibility to his experience during Khamoshi. That debut, gave him lessons for a lifetime. So whilst everyone was ridiculing Saawariya and dispensing opinions and judgement over Bhansali’s downfall, he was off to Paris marking a theatrical success. He staged the opera Padmaavati in 2008. The show premiered in Paris at Théâtre du Châtelet and next at Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy. Here, it received a 15 minute standing ovation and 7 curtain calls at the end of the show.
Another Bollywood failure followed in the form of Guzaarish in 2010. Though Guzaarish received positive reviews from the critics but, unfortunately it could not receive commercial success. However, Guzaarish marked Bhansali’s music directorial debut. Bhansali doesn’t really have regrets about any of his failures. He believes that everything is a part of a bigger picture in life which unveils itself at the right time. He believes, a tough time period results in major life lessons and it is upto one whether to take them in good stride or leave them. He is obviously a man who learns his lessons right.
2013 marked the launch of an extremely successful and loved trio : Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Deepika Padukone, and Ranveer Singh. The director released Ram Leela in 2013, Bajirao Mastani in 2015, and Padmaavat in 2018. All three movies turned out to be a colossal success and made mammoth mark in Indian cinema especially Bajirao Mastani and Padmaavat which are historical adaptations and bring to life – century old legacies in the form of motion pictures. Extravagant sets, stunning jewellery, intellectually profound, rich scripts, music that relishes the soul, and timeless direction that is beyond imagination ; these movies turned out to be a cinematic treat. The movies experienced controversies as well as hindrance since they had some or the other element which was expected to be offensive by various cults. Eventually, all three movies moved past that and were released successfully earning their due credits.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali is a man of creative vision. He is very disciplined and hard working but that is the result of the fact that he loves his work. He doesn’t just make a movie. He lives it. Each project is given birth to and nurtured like a baby and is delivered to the world as a piece of perfection. Bhansali wishes to keep legacies alive through his cinema. Through his stories, he expresses his personal anguish and suffering. He creates magic out of tragedy, such is his capabilitiy. Bhansali brings out those elements out of an actor whose existence, the actor himself is unaware about. He moulds characters so exquisitely that the audience resonates with each one of them may it be Leela, Kaashi Bai, Alauddin Khilji, Devdas, Chandramukhi, Bajirao or any other character from his epic cinematic tales. His movies have a surreal quality which make them awaited as they take one into a completely different world. They are pure, raw, and full of life.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s contribution to Indian Cinema is something that will be remembered beyond decades. It is work that inspires and makes one believe; touching the soul of every person. Every character of Bhansali’s is remarkable and leaves a mark on the mind. His movies aren’t simply just movies, but an experience. He has offered some brilliant works and there is more to come. As long as we have directors like him in the industry, Indian Cinema is assured to garner praise and honour and present timeless cinema and stories. The industry as we can call it, is in the right hands.