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While Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh did full justice to Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s historical drama, Bajirao Mastani, there was a time when the filmmaker had a different ideas for the cast in mind. He had wanted Salman Khan and Aishwarya Rai as the leads, after their pairing became key to the success in his film Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. However, the film with these stars could not happen, leading to much speculation about a rift between Bhansali and Aishwarya.
During his 2004 appearance on Koffee with Karan, Bhansali addressed the speculation surrounding their rough patch and how it was fueled further by small misunderstandings. Aishwarya, who was present, also mentioned that that a wrong quote attributed to her after she had refused working in Bajirao Mastani, regarding Bhansali was published in a leading magazine. “I had just resumed work after my accident, and I was on a very heavy schedule. I had never given that interview.” Later, Aishwarya made the journalist speak to the filmmaker to set the record straight.
Aishwarya emphasised that she and Bhansali had already discussed not working together in Bajirao Mastani, before any rumours of a rift had surfaced. “We had talked about this, and he had been wonderful. Yes, it was his vision and saw us working together, but circumstantially I could not work with the kind of team he was looking at, and he was fine. I was game to play Mastani but not with the Bajirao he had in my mind. The media made it out to be that Aishwarya ‘walked out’ of Bajirao Mastani, and he was hurt by that headline. We hadn’t communicated and I was in hospital with my leg laid up.”
Bhansali added, “I was very hurt by the fact that Aishwarya was not being Mastani. For me, she is a central part of my work. So is my friendship with Salman. I was in a dilemma, I wanted to stand by her too. We didn’t meet in the middle for one and a half years, because she felt I was not a good enough friend to visit her in the hospital. But I wanted her to go home and rest, but I think in friendship you should be able to express the fact that you are hurt.” Aishwarya cut in, “But you didn’t see me at all. You had a month and a half.” Bhansali mentioned he was upset with the headlines, as he thought that Aishwarya had spoken to the press and not him. He also explained that this rift was really nothing new, as they had ‘always fought’. “I love Aishwarya, I hate her a lot. Most of our schedules, we have had huge fights, shouting and screaming.”
It almost seemed as if the film would never happen, and Bhansali admitted that the potential ‘Mastanis’ gave him a lot of trouble. When Karan Johar asked about Kareena as a probable Mastani, Bhansali explained, “She had two other films signed with Salman, and I wanted that pair to be kept just for my film—the first time to be seen. She didn’t want to wait. So there it is.
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