Gangubai Kathiawadi: Sanjay Leela Bhansali calls the Alia Bhatt starrer his ‘most personal work yet’

The upcoming crime drama also features Ajay Devgn, Vijay Raaz, Indira Tiwari and Seema Pahwa

To say that Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s next, Gangubai Kathiawadi, is generating a lot of buzz would be an understatement. With each update regarding the film that comes out, fans’ anticipation of the Alia Bhatt starrer becomes more and more palpable. The prolific filmmaker recently opened up about his upcoming film, revealing how the project is deeply personal to him.

In a conversation with Variety, the filmmaker revealed that he had lived only a street away from Kamathipura, the infamous red-light district where Gangubai operated her brothel, for almost three decades. The filmmaker talked about how he used to frequently come across women there and how they had been a part of his childhood. He also went on to say that the film is one of the most personal works of his career yet, the sort of work, which a filmmaker makes, only once or twice over the course of his career.

Bhansali also talked in length about the upcoming film’s titular protagonist, a young woman who was forced into prostitution and soon rose to the ranks to become a powerful brothel madam with her ties with the mafia. Calling Gangubai someone who has fought to protect women who were considered ‘weak’ and ‘lost’, the filmmaker talked about how she always sought to empower women by making them aware of the inherent dignity in their profession.

According to him, Gangubhai always believed that prostitution, as a profession, should be accepted by society, and worked to help the people under her employ to come out of ostracisation. Bhansali remarked how he was intrigued by the woman’s self-respect and dignified way of carrying herself.

Gangubai Kathiawadi, which is based on a chapter from S. Hussain Zaidi’s book ‘Mafia Queens of Mumbai, will be released on February 25.

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