CNN Central News & Network-ITDC India Epress / ITDC News Bhopal: Filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali is known for being a tough taskmaster. ‘Heeramandi’ actor Aditi Rao Hydari recently recalled not getting a lunch break during the shoot of the Netflix series. Once, when she was unable to capture the emotion of her scene correctly, Bhansali narrated a story to evoke a particular emotion in her and also refrained her from eating her lunch. At the same time, everyone else was given a lunch break. However, Hydari had no issue with the director’s method.
“One day, we did two or three takes, and then he just called me very sweetly and started speaking to me. I immediately got transported to another world. He speaks very beautifully and sincerely, so it’s very passionate, and I had tears in my eyes. And then he said we were going to shoot this scene and gave everybody a lunch break but said, ‘But, you will not eat. Is that okay?’ I was like, ‘Done’,” Hyadari narrated during a chat with Bollywood Hungama.
She added, “So, I didn’t eat, and it really helped me. It kept me on edge and not soft. I went back to my van and just thought about everything that he said. He basically told me a story. I came back, and we shot it, and it was okayed.”
Aditi Rao Hydari as Bibbojaan in Heeramandi. Watch
The 37-year-old actor, who essays the role of Bibbojaan in ‘Heeramandi’, also remembered how Bhansali often teased her for not being able to emote anger.
“He used to say, ‘If I say an angry scene, she’ll do one love scene with full Shringar bhav’. And he’s right. For me, to be angry is the most tiring thing, especially the very outward anger. And I have to be this passionate, rousing girl (here). I have to make all these people (the other characters) believe in what I’m saying,” Hydari said.
‘Heeramandi’, which started streaming on Netflix on May 1, has received a mixed response from the audience. While some have praised it for being a visual extravaganza, some have criticised it for being factually incorrect.
The story of ‘Heeramandi’ revolves around the courtesans of Lahore and their lives in the red-light district of Heeramandi. Besides Hydari, it also stars Manisha Koirala, Sonakshi Sinha, Sanjeeda Sheikh, Richa Chadha, Shekhar Suman, and others.
