Filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali released the first launched the first glimpse of his Netflix series Heeramandi in Mumbai on Saturday. The web series features Manisha Koirala, Sonakshi Sinha, Aditi Rao Hydari, Sharmin Segal, Sanjeeda Shaikh and Richa Chadha. It is set amidst the pre-independence time frame of India featuring the galaxy of courtesans. At the launch, Bhansali averred about how films have treated women like ‘queens’ and the pain that is engulfed within the courtesan.
Speaking about the status of women of Heeramandi, Bhansali said, “These women were courtesans. Behind their veil, they were real women, they felt so much pain. There is so much that they went through, yet they would come in the evening and they would sing and dance. Look at their lives, they were courtesans, they did not have a place in society. The society goes to them, they please those men, they entertain those men and then they go back to their dark world. Once their prime time is over, the courtesan is dead. She’s forgotten.”
“I feel all directors that I have loved, Raj Kapoor, Yash Chopra, Mehboob Khan, Bimal Roy, Guru Dutt, V Shantaram, they all told beautiful female stories. They understood that a woman is the creator of man therefore she needs to be given place in literature, in cinema, in art in every which way. They always told stories of women, they were not necessarily telling stories of men,” he averred.
Sanjay thereafter mentioned about the importance of women as portrayed in his films, “So, if there is a Bajirao, there is also Mastani for me, if there was no Mastani then I wouldn’t make Bajirao. If there is no Padmavati who holds fort and fights and goes into fire, I wouldn’t make that film. In Heeramandi there are eight women who are inspiring me to tell stories about how you fight suffering, how to stand up for dignity, and what dignity means to a courtesan. Dignity is very important to a sex worker, that was the theme of Gangubai.”
Bhansali’s Gangubai Kathiawadi was a massive hit in 2022 which featured Aliaa Bhatt in the protagonist role.
