Sanjay Leela Bhansali has helmed films with strong female leads and his last two films focused on two very different female characters
Bollywood churns out plenty of films in a year. Often it is said that rarely ‘women-oriented films’ succeed at the Box Office and that you need a ‘hero’ to get the crowds in. However, filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali dismisses the sentiment. Scroll down to know more.
SLB is one of the well-known filmmakers in Bollywood. He has helmed films with strong female leads and his last two films focused on two very different female characters around whom the stories revolved – Rani Padmavati of Chittor and Gangubai Kathiwadi of Kamathipura.
During a conversation with ETimes, Sanjay Leela Bhansali dismissed the prevailing sentiment of ‘women-oriented films’ rarely succeed at the Box Office and said, “Who says that the nation doesn’t want to see a women-oriented story or a heroine-oriented story? Who says that they are not going to see it?”
The ace filmmaker even cited some of the work of the veterans of yesteryear and stressed the importance of women-oriented films. He said, “There are so many shades of a woman, and this needs to be told on celluloid. I mean, just look at it from decades back – Bimal Roy did it and worked on it in Sujata and Bandini. Raj Kapoor did Ram Teri Ganga Maili, Bobby. There were filmmakers who did such wonderful work – V Shantaram ji did such wonderful films on women such as Stree. Mehboob Khan did Mother India. Now why have these – women-led films – become a lesser category, I don’t understand.”
Sanjay Leela Bhansali even cited several films that had women-centred stories made by most celebrated filmmakers, Mehboob Khan’s Mother India, Kammal Amrohi’s Pakeezah, Asif K’s Mughal-e-Azam, Shyam Benegal’s Bhumika to name a few. He went on to say that his film Devdas was the story of Chandramukhi and Paro.
SLB then said, “You keep hearing that it is all a hero industry, hero industry – I don’t know who spread it. Where is this concept of a hero-oriented industry ki hero ki picture chalegi, wahin paisa daalo, heroine ki picture pe mat daalo – where has this come from? I don’t understand where does this thought come from that in our industry, hero wali picture zyada chalti hai. It is not true!”
Sanjay Leela Bhansali further said that a handful of people are just unnecessarily muddled the mind and that we are blaming the audience wrongly.