PremiumHeeramandi: Did you know that Sanjay Leela Bhansali nearly lost the project to David Dhawan? Here’s the full story!
Sanjay Leela Bhansali made his OTT debut with Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar. The series is currently streaming on Netflix.
Last Updated: 10.16 AM, May 24, 2024
Sanjay Leela Bhansali is currently enjoying the success of his show Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar. The show also marks the filmmaker's debut in the digital world. But did you know that this project was almost given to David Dhawan by its writer Moin Beg? Read on to know the details.
Recently, when Bhansali was in conversation with Hindustan Times, he revealed that it was Aditya Pancholi, who brought Moin Beg to his house and told him that he had written something that you can make and he said 'There's nothing like that'. This was the time, almost 20 years back when SLB just finished Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai, and Madhuri Dixit starrer Devdas and decided to make Black with Amitabh Bachchan and Rani Mukerji.
Heeramandi was almost made by David Dhawan!
“Whenever I announced a new film, Moin would call me. ‘You are not making Heeramandi? Now, you’ve started another film. Now, you’ve started Ram-Leela (2013)! Now you’ve started Bajirao Mastani (2015)! And now, you’ve started Padmaavat (2018)!’ Then he just threatened me that he’d take the script away and give it to David Dhawan,” the filmmaker revealed.
Also read: Heeramandi Review - Sanjay Leela Bhansali is now a genre and his poetic grandeur stands unparalleled
Further talking about how Heeramandi needed a lot of time, he finally opted for the OTT format as they also started getting bigger. The director said, “The script would come out every 2-3 years. But I always said to myself that this is very big. It needs a lot of time – 3,4 or 5 hours. Luckily, when this format (of OTT) started opening up and becoming popular, my mind kept thinking maybe this is the right place to make Heeramandi.”
More about Heeramandi
Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar was released on Netflix on May 1. The show stars Manisha Koirala, Sonakshi Sinha, Aditi Rao Hydari, Sanjeeda Sheikh, Richa Chadha, and Sharmin Segal in the lead. It also features Farheen Khan, Taha Shah Badussha, Shekhar Suman, and Adhyayan Suman in key roles. The show revolves around the lives of courtesans in the red-light district of Heera Mandi in Lahore during the Indian independence movement against the British Raj.