18 years of vision, 3 years of preparation, and 300 days of rolling – Sanjay Leela Bhansali is ready to serve one of his biggest projects of all time. Titled Heeramandi, this 8-episodic series will start streaming on Netflix today (May 1). It stars Manisha Koirala, Sonakshi Sinha, Sanjeeda Sheikh, Richa Chadha, Aditi Rao Hydari, and Sharmin Segal in the lead. But did you know that this wasn’t the first casting choice for Bhansali?
Who was Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s first choice to be cast in Heeramandi?
Recently while speaking to Lilly Singh at the Los Angeles premiere of Netflix, Sanjay Leela Bhansali revealed that this project had been on his mind for the last 18 years. In all those years, he considered several actors to lead this. However, he is now happy with his current cast and said that “popular actors” would not have managed to do so.
The Padmaavat director was heard saying, “This was 18 years ago, so at one point, it was Rekha ji, Kareena (Kapoor Khan) and Rani Mukerji. Then it changed into another cast, then it changed into another cast.”
Sanjay Leela Bhansali confirms Heeramandi was initially envisioned as a film
Calling the script of Heeramandi “charming, vast, and epic”, Bhansali revealed, “It was supposed to be a film. At one point, it was also Mahira Khan, the Pakistani actor, then Fawad Khan and Imran Abbas. But then it all changed.” For the unversed, it was recently only that Imran had spoken about the same and told on Arry Digital, “I had not said no to Heeramandi, but it got shelved.”
Gone past are those discussions, Bhansali now admits to being happy with his current cast. In the same interview, the ace filmmaker called them extremely talented and beautiful while adding, “They had the time to give to the show because if you had been busy, you wouldn’t be able to give those 350 days that I shot for. You won’t be able to give that time and commitment because you are busy and everywhere in ads and events. Popular actors don’t have time.”
Sanjay Leela Bhansali has Love & War in his kitty next starring Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, and Vicky Kaushal in the lead.
