Sanjay Leela Bhansali defends losing temper on set, cites Raj Kapoor as example: ‘Not interested in turmoil actors went through on his set’

Also read – ‘Richa Chadha was actually crying’: Sanjay Leela Bhansali recalls ‘anger, humiliation’ on her face after she struggled to nail important shot in Heeramandi

Bhansali said that the film or show is always bigger than either himself or his cast. “If I’m not getting what I want, even if I lose my temper, what is wrong in it? If you’re not getting a shot, and if someone is spoiling it, what will you do? People have made stories that I’m angry, that I’m badly behaved…” The filmmaker claimed that he spoils his actors and technicians, and often, he returns to work with them and vice versa, because they feel that they don’t get the same ‘love’ on other sets.

He continued, “What we go through on the set is not important. What we create on set for the world is important. When I shouted at somebody or got angry with somebody or laughed and joked with somebody, it’s never going to be remembered. What car I came in, what palatial house I live in, nobody is interested. I want to know what Raj Kapoor left behind, not the bungalow that he lived in, not the turmoil on his set or what his actors went through.” Bhansali admitted again that he gets upset ‘sometimes’, but only because he’s like a child who acts out when he doesn’t get what he wants. He also said that he’s the first to apologise when he steps out of line.

In the past, actors such as Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, and Ranveer Singh have all spoken about having experienced difficulties with the filmmaker. Ranbir said in an interview with Neha Dhupia that he was ‘tortured’ on set. “He (Bhansali) was a hard task-master and I was kneeling down on set, he was beating me…after a point it got so heavy and I felt so tortured that I had to quit the film at a point…I think it was like 10 or 11 months into my job and I am like ‘ listen I can’t do this, its getting to me’ I think I am too sensitive and emotional and he got to know me so well and he kind of kept poking into that… he got too much, went crazy as far as I was concerned,” he said.