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Filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali launched the first look of his Netflix series Heeramandi in Mumbai on Saturday. The web series starring Manisha Koirala, Sonakshi Sinha, Aditi Rao Hydari, Sharmin Segal, Sanjeeda Shaikh and Richa Chadha is set during pre-independent India amid the world of courtesans. At the launch, Bhansali spoke about treating women like ‘queens’ and the pain that a courtesan goes through in her life.
Talking about the women of Heeramandi, Bhansali said, “These women were courtesans. Behind their veil, they were real women, they felt so much pain. There is so much that they went through, yet they would come in the evening and they would sing and dance. Look at their lives, they were courtesans, they did not have a place in society. The society goes to them, they please those men, they entertain those men and then they go back to their dark world. Once their prime time is over, the courtesan is dead. She’s forgotten.”
Bhansali then spoke about how it is important for him to tell stories of women, and how films of Raj Kapoor, Yash Chopra and Guru Dutt have inspired him to place women in the highest regard in his films. “I feel all directors that I have loved, Raj Kapoor, Yash Chopra, Mehboob Khan, Bimal Roy, Guru Dutt, V Shantaram, they all told beautiful female stories. They understood that a woman is the creator of man therefore she needs to be given place in literature, in cinema, in art in every which way. They always told stories of women, they were not necessarily telling stories of men,” he said.
Sanjay then spoke about the importance of women in his films, “So, if there is a Bajirao, there is also Mastani for me, if there was no Mastani then I wouldn’t make Bajirao. If there is no Padmavati who holds fort and fights and goes into fire, I wouldn’t make that film. In Heeramandi there are eight women who are inspiring me to tell stories about how you fight suffering, how to stand up for dignity, and what dignity means to a courtesan. Dignity is very important to a sex worker, that was the theme of Gangubai.”
Bhansali’s Gangubai Kathiawadi released in 2022 and starred Alia Bhatt in the lead role.
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