In director Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s latest lush web series ‘Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar’, it’s a given that it’s going to be a dazzling spectacle filled with sweeping cinematography, gorgeous sets, and detailed costuming. But what makes this aesthetically wondrous, women-led series more enchanting is that it’s led by a group of actors who have tremendous agency on and off the show. The eight-episode musical period drama will transport you into an elite house of courtesans ruled by the scheming Mallikajaan (Manisha Koirala). Her position of power is rattled when a new rival (Sonakshi Sinha), the daughter of her nemesis, enters the picture and threatens to topple her position. The series, set in British-ruled India in the 1900s, also features accomplished actors such as Aditi Rao Hydari and Sharmin Seghal. Gulf News spoke to Sinha, Hydari, and Seghal over a zoom video call to know more about the show, streaming on Netflix now, and here’s our key take-aways from the conversation…
Read the full story here: https://gulfnews.com/entertainment/bollywood/enter-sanjay-leela-bhansalis-world-of-heeramandi-powered-by-strong-women-who-are-not-into-fake-sisterhood-1.1714573617168
See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos
Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km
Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV
#UAEnews #Indian #heeramandi
Read the full story here: https://gulfnews.com/entertainment/bollywood/enter-sanjay-leela-bhansalis-world-of-heeramandi-powered-by-strong-women-who-are-not-into-fake-sisterhood-1.1714573617168
See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos
Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km
Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV
#UAEnews #Indian #heeramandi
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00This is one of the funnest characters I've played.
00:02Working with Sanjay sir is life-altering and career-altering.
00:06An opportunity to work so early on in my career with a director like Sanjay Leela Bhansali is
00:11like one of the most, like makes me feel like the most privileged person ever.
00:15His love for women, his love for culture just shows through everything that he is doing.
00:23Women with a lot of agency in Hiram Mandi.
00:26You may be sex workers but I suppose you all have a voice.
00:29Is that what we are looking at?
00:30Well, not just sex workers.
00:35You know what, okay.
00:36There's a difference in what tawaiyafs are and what sex workers are.
00:40Well, like Geshas in Hiram Mandi there was like three categories of people.
00:45There was tawaiyafs who could, who were also very trained in etiquette,
00:49in embroidery, in music, in dance, in shairi, in literature.
00:54Then there was the mirasins who were allowed to perform like thumris and other things
00:59but they were not allowed to hold court, like they could not have their own quota.
01:04In a sense, they could not be a malika jaan and beneath them were the vaishyas.
01:09So, there were always rungs.
01:10A tawaiyaf could choose a patron.
01:13Not everyone had access to her.
01:15People with a pot of gold and gold ashrafis would go in
01:18and they would decide if they could be admitted or not and people would call
01:23like, hey, I have dibs on this one, like you'll see in the first episode.
01:26It's Sharman's character and things like that and then it kind of proceeds.
01:31They held a lot of sway both in the courts before the British
01:35and then even when the Indian independence freedom was going on, even in society.
01:40All the ceremonies that happen in the home, special initiation ceremonies of various things,
01:44the tawaiyafs were brought in to sort of bless the occasion.
01:49A guest of honor and they were kind of like, they were celebrities.
01:56If a tawaiyaf stepped out in a new thanga, everyone would look like, oh my god, what is she wearing?
02:01What's that embroidery? What's that jewelry?
02:03It's only much later and actually when the British realized how much sway they held
02:08that they started calling them notch girls.
02:10N-A-U-T-C-H, like oh let's call them notch girl
02:13and then with the decline in royal patronage, with the impoverishment of India,
02:19they slowly, slowly, slowly you know with nothing else to resort to,
02:24it just kind of the lines became blurred in the categories.
02:27More empowered queens actually without patriarchy sitting on their heads.
02:31They would not entertain more than one man maybe for a decade if they had a patron so
02:36it was kind of like a, the man also agreed to take care of the woman for decades,
02:42not just for, yeah like that.
02:45When you guys got the script from Mr. Bansali, is that what he also told you?
02:51Was there a demarcation? Was there a crash course on it?
02:53You trust Sanjay sir with whether it's a sex worker or that's being depicted like him,
02:58Gangubai or whether it's a tawaiyaf.
03:01The man knows how to dignify every shade of a woman or every kind of a woman so
03:08I don't think we had to think much about how the portrayal would be of this group,
03:16this group of tawaiyafs so that I think Sanjay sir appreciates feminine energy,
03:22feminine like everything very well.
03:25And he also chooses those stories because he, I mean that's what he's weird,
03:31I mean that's what he's attracted towards.
03:33Empowered women, also women who are unapologetic and who are,
03:42and this kind of artistry and stories that lends itself to the artistry that he so values.
03:48So Nakshi, you have a goth vibe happening, there's something dark about you,
03:52you seem to be, are you the quintessential, what do you say?
03:56Not the villain, villain is too simplistic but do you, you know, are you the one,
04:00get all these women, what are your roles like as well?
04:04This is one of the funnest characters I've played.
04:06As an actor to do something so different, so drastically different from what you know,
04:11you've been doing all these years and for Sanjay sir to imagine me in this role,
04:16I'm truly, truly thankful.
04:17Like I've had such an amazing time portraying all these emotions like you know,
04:23anger, rage, vengeance, jealousy, all the things that we consider bad but I get so human.
04:30That are so natural, that might have come to everyone at some point of time in their life.
04:35Just getting all of those emotions pent up into this one character and playing her,
04:41just having all of that in your heart, it was truly a pleasure.
04:44Like I had such a fun time being Faridun.
04:47What about you Richa, Aditi and Sharmin as well?
04:50An opportunity to work so early on in my career with a director like Sanjay Leela Bhansali is like
04:55one of the most, like makes me feel like the most privileged person ever.
05:00Alamzeb's character overall I think is a lot at where I was in my life when I started
05:07not shooting the show, I started auditioning for the show because her arc moves in a way where
05:13it's more like a coming of age story where she matures and learns from her mistakes and then
05:19eventually in the eighth episode you understand that she is so much more than what she was when
05:26she started and she's made mistakes and learned from them and I think I stick by one philosophy
05:32in life that when you're at the lowest point in your life, you only have up to go to,
05:38provided you learn from that failure, failure is the strongest teacher of most things and I think
05:43Alamzeb goes through that at multiple points in the show, she's down and then she comes back up
05:48and then she's down again and she comes back up so it was overall a great role to play for me
05:54because I also matured so much as Shaman through that process so it worked out well.
05:59Working with Sanjay sir is life-altering and career-altering, he is truly incredible apart
06:08from the legendary films that he makes, I think he also really, really loves his actors and
06:15believes a lot in us and believes in us more than we possibly even believe in ourselves which can
06:23really change you and which can really sort of give you more of a fire you know to do whatever
06:29it is that he wants you to do or where he's trying to push you, that in itself is very, very
06:36huge but I would say specifically with Bipojaan, I like that she is fire and grace, I love that
06:44that comes together in her, I love that Sanjay sir had this character which he told me is she's a
06:50very pure-hearted, very loving, kind, helpful, almost sort of there's an innocence to her etc
06:58but that fire in her is what makes her who she truly is and I feel like you know in the parts
07:05that I've done before a particular aspect of me has possibly been spoken of more than anything
07:11else even though I have tried to pick parts that have, that are fearless and that stand strong
07:17in this Sanjay sir has also given me huge context you know so that context makes that
07:25fearlessness and that courage and that honourable sort of righteousness even bigger and more
07:31dramatic and for that I am so, so, so grateful and he really pushed me to into that fire almost if I
07:39may say so and it was very, very, I was actually blessed for it.
07:46I was really just interested in doing this because I've been perceived so differently by
07:51different people as you know like just the parts have done you know like the experimentation, the
07:59risks I've taken in my career, I feel like to a large extent they've caused a certain kind of
08:04stereotyping and I wanted to break that and I wanted to break that strategically and who better
08:12to break it with than with Mr. Bhansali you know his love for women, his love for culture just
08:19shows through everything that he is doing and not just for me I see it in every character that he
08:26has taken the care to sort of you know almost choreograph everything that, that happens in
08:36their world just sheer the detailing in terms of how the light hits Fareedan's face when she's
08:45saying something evil and there's like a she's like stoking a flame almost and you know how,
08:51how in I mean I'm, I don't want to give spoilers but basically just his love for women, his love
08:59for culture shows through and I think what happens when you do all these what I call
09:08gareeb cinema is that you kind of get like you know, you know you just get identified with that.
09:16Right.
09:16I want to say credit to Mr. Bhansali for seeing me in a different light also without an audition,
09:22without anything and whereas so many of my independent you know heroes have told me you
09:29can't really do a lip-sync song or you can't really do this and that and I was like can I not?
09:34Let me, let me see, let me try and see what happens.
09:38Is the sisterhood among y'all easy to cultivate?
09:41We didn't have to cultivate it, actually it was very effortless.
09:44I honestly personally don't think that you make friends on every set but having said that it
09:49really, really helps that there's only one alpha on set and that is our big dog Bhansali and he
09:56sort of sets the tone right like he is the boss and all of us somewhere are just trying to
10:01execute his vision. We didn't have to work hard towards cultivating anything because
10:05he is the big daddy and we are all there to support him and thereby support each other and
10:11I admire all these women, I love their work and I followed their work, the stuff that they've done.
10:17Was it very tough to wear all those costumes?
10:19It was tough.
10:24Because you're trying to create something and of course you have to suck it up and wear it
10:28because you're part of a vision and you know it was once you see the result on screen it makes
10:33all the effort really worth it you know we were sitting it was long hours to be to be sitting in
10:39outfits like that and jewellery like that all day long constantly like you're just in that
10:44there were there came a point I think where we all reached at some point we had to just kind of
10:49ignore it and perform you know so it just it just works beautifully for everyone to see it
10:57creates a great visual but it is definitely difficult yeah.
11:08you