Sanjay Leela Bhansali is one of the very few filmmakers who also compose music for their films. He's an accomplished composer, and has also won a National Award for the music of his 2018 period drama Padmaavat. However, if there's a composer with whom he's enjoyed a memorable creative partnership, it's Ismail Darbar. Darbar composed the songs for two of Bhansali's most iconic films - Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999), which was also the latter's first commercial success, and Devdas (2002), which fetched him global acclaim. However, after that, the two never collaborated again. While Bhansali's 2005 directorial Black didn't have any songs, he picked Monty Sharma as the composer for Saawariya (2007) before turning the composer himself with Guzaarish (2010). "Today, if Sanjay comes and says to me, ‘Please do the music for my film, I’ll give you ₹100 crore,’ I’ll tell him, ‘Pehli fursat mein chale jaa yahan se’ (Please leave immediately)," Darbar told Vickey Lalwani in a recent interview. He traced back their bitter fallout to an argument during the initial years of the making of Heeramandi, Bhansali's long-format period drama. When Bhansali was initially making Heeramandi in the early 2000s, Darbar was roped in as the music composer after the success of Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. However, a news report highlighted Darbar's music as the "backbone" of the project, which angered Bhansali who thought Darbar had planted the article himself. “I said, ‘Look, if I have to break the news, I won’t be scared of you. I’ll say it outright that yes, I said it.’ I still don’t know who that man was, but he put that news out and Sanjay found out. He called me into his office and asked, ‘Ismail, how could you say that?’ After that, he said, ‘Alright, let it go.’ After that I understood that ‘let it go’ really meant that sooner or later, he would put me in a position where I would leave Heeramandi myself. I left before that could happen," recalled Darbar. While Heeramandi was put on the backburner as it'd release only 20 years later as a Netflix India Original show, with Bhansali as the composer. But he and Darbar continued to work together on Devdas, but the tensions escalated. "He understood – when the backbone is Ismail Darbar: I was the backbone in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. I was the backbone in Devdas too. I’m not the one saying this – his PR said it, it was on the front pages. So I had seen his ego. Fear had crept in that I work so hard and he takes the credit," added Darbar. Also Read - When Ismail Darbar accused AR Rahman of buying his Oscar, claimed he was spending more time on PR: ‘Kaam ke saath beimaani toh mat karo yaar’ As per Darbar, Bhansali even asked his PR to not organize interviews for Darbar. While the two were supposed to reunite for Guzaarish, that call was never made to Darbar again as Bhansali took on that mantle himself. Bhansali had also offered Bajirao Mastani to Darbar in 2005, when he was initially making it with Salman Khan and Aishwarya Rai, but the latter opted for Subhash Ghai's Kisna (2005) instead. Bajirao Mastani eventually released 10 years later in 2015, starring Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone, with Bhansali also doubling up as the music composer.
