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EXCLUSIVE: Sanjay Leela Bhansali credits his success to parents; reveals ‘creative angel’ dad showed him Mughal-E-Aazam 18 times
While speaking exclusively with Pinkvilla, Sanjay Leela Bhansali spoke in detail about his relationship and memories with his father as he credited his success to his parents.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali, the magnum-opus director in Bollywood, is rejoicing in the success of his last digital debut show, Heeramandi. He is renowned for creating larger-than-life cinema with magnificent grandeur. The same was also visible in his latest show.
Meanwhile, while speaking exclusively with us, the director reflected on his relationship with his parents and credited his success to them.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali calls his 'creative angel' dad his 'guiding force'
In a candid chit-chat with Pinkvilla, Sanjay Leela Bhansali admitted to feeling ‘cathartic’ recreating scenes and events inspired by his real life. He said, “You may not be now any more scarred or bruised. Everything heals and with time you realize it so many places you were completely wrong, as in my relationship with my father I would’ve been completely wrong 80% of the time.”
He further continued, “When I look back, and I’m seeing that relationship doesn’t end for me. I feel today when I am making films, my father’s soul who taught me everything about films, because he was a film producer he had great understanding he took me to Mughal-e-Aazm 18 times, and he showed me the importance of Guru Dutt, Jagjit Singh, and Lata Mangeshkar and Mohd Rafi, and he taught me and spoke to me, it stayed in my mind.”
“And, I feel his soul today overlooks the fact that this average human being that I am, very I would say below average human being, outside the studio, outside the floor I led into creating these and fulfilling these dreams against all adversities and all difficulties there is some guiding force, that guiding force is him. And, I strongly feel the presence of every human being if you invoke, you have your creative angels or guardian angels,” said the Heeramandi director.
Watch the full interview here:
Sanjay Leela Bhansali on how his father's guiding light has helped him in his success
He further elucidated his point opining, “I also feel creative angels are very very important. So, I have a lot of them and my father for sure is one of them because how is it that I pass through and go through such difficult times again and again over 30 years of filmmaking that I’ve done, and I’ve always landed into a dead end, somebody’s helping me and pulling me out."
"It’s not possible,” the filmmaker said, further adding how he has achieved his father’s dream of making ‘big cinema’ similar to the likes of Mughal-E-Azam, V. Shantaram, Mehboob Khan, and Raj Kapoor.
“I feel that if you realize the scale has opened up, I think what he wants me to most of the time, and I’ve been able to pull it off because it’s the soul guiding. So, even if your disagreements in real life may have been there, but he makes you understand so many things even after the person is gone, and he doesn’t live with you and that is the mystery of living life beautifully and that’s the mystery of creating magic on cinema. These illusions, these unreal characters that you are portraying and putting on the screen,” Mr Bhansali said.
The filmmaker raised questions and asked: “Who are these people? Where do these moments come from? They are from another life you’ve lived, or they are from another future life that you’re going to live? How did you come up with a certain moment between two characters?"
"There is a lot of mystery, and I’m still trying to find but yes it is the blessings of your parents,” he continued.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali's note on his mother
Concluding his answer on a poignant note, the Heeramandi director stated, “My mother has forgotten everything, but she never forgets me. Even Alzheimer's can’t take the mother’s love for the child away."
Talking about his mother further, SLB shared, "She sees, and she remembers it’s my son so that magic that a parent has we may not understand his children all through that we may disagree which I always believe that we should disagree, but I feel that debate continues of what they want to talk to us even in after they’ve gone so we should respect those relationships immensely.”
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