Inside the world of 'Heeramandi': How SLB brought his vision for Lahore's red light district to life

A lot has been written and said about Sanjay Leela Bhansali's upcoming magnum opus, Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar. The filmmaker has gone on to claim that his streaming debut is his grandest project to date. However, there is more than meets the eye when it comes to context. Speaking to Architectural Digest, Bhansali tells all.

"When Sanjay Leela Bhansali was a school student, he often imagined the walls of his 250-square-foot home, in South Mumbai’s crowded chawl being pushed out ten metres to make more room," reads an excerpt from the article. "While constantly pushing that wall by ten metres I have now reached to Heeramandi, my biggest set ever, where walls have been pushed way beyond I would have imagined as a child," Bhansali tells the publication.

The article highlights that "for seven months straight, 700 craftsmen worked at Mumbai’s Film City to erect the set on about 60,000 wooden planks and metal frames." Mallikajaan's Shahi Mahal, Khwabgaah, the quarters of Fareeda, "a splendid white mosque, a huge courtyard, a dancing hall, complete with water fountains, a colonial-looking room, which are the quarters of a young prince and roads and shops, and other smaller kothas and also a hammam room" ornate the set. 

There are breathtakingly detailed Mughal miniature paintings on the walls, alongside "the delicate frescoes, the colonial portraits of British officers, the filigree work on the window frames, the enamel carving on the floor, the minutely etched wooden doors and the chandeliers" all of which have been "handmade under Bhansali’s supervision." The article reveals, "The teak wood furniture dating back to the 1930s and 40s was brought from an antique store in Amdavad, which in itself is a museum in its own right as it is spread across 15 acres. Also, we are told that some sofas and tables used in the series have been purchased by Bhansali himself for his collection."

Architectural Digest terms the set "a legit township, straight out of Bhansali’s mind that was quietly being conceptualised for 18 years." Shedding light on the same, Bhansali says, “When there are characters I love a lot, I create special spaces for them.” He adds, “My art directors (Amit Ray and Subrata Chakraborty) are petrified when I call them. I chew their brains until I get things right.” Indeed, Bhansali's vision comes with tweaks, edits, and exceedingly high standards of excellence and finesse. Above all else, there can be no compromise. 

“It’s where it all unfolds. It’s where I give my best as it’s where the camera is going to be placed and the frame will be made,” says Bhansali. “You can’t just make a set and place your characters in it. No, it doesn’t work that way. Architecture plays a very important role in frame-making and filmmaking." He adds, "Making a good set requires lots of love and responsibility. Even the design of a single pillar comes from the depth of one’s imagination."

Borrowing influences from " the crumbling walls of Kamathipura, Mumbai’s red light area, which Bhansali passed on the way back home from school," the "many antiques he saw being sold at Chor Bazaar or the fading walls of his childhood home," Bhansali's creativity can be seen as a definitive reflection of accumulated life experiences. “I grew up in a simple, middle-class family where going to art galleries or museums was not part of the culture,” he remarks. 

Imagination takes precedence over reality, for the set looks nothing like the Heeramandi in Pakistan. “It can never be real as art is not real,” the filmmaker explains. “Can you touch a Kishori Amonkar raag? Can you take a Gaitonde painting and say let’s place it in reality? You can’t.” The director hopes to create frames that can double as paintings, though he admits that might take a while. “I am constantly thinking will that one table matter to the audience; will that one fresco peeping out of the wall behind Mallikajaan mean anything to them?” he offers - a perplexing, intriguing insight into the mind of the master of fantasy. 

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