"You cannot do that cheating with the master."
Richa Chadha defended Sanjay Leela Bhansali, asserting that he is not a hard taskmaster.
The actress also accused stars of being lazy when it came to working with Bhansali.
She plays one of the leading roles in Bhansali’s upcoming web series Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar.
Richa stated: “No offence to actors but today even they have become lazy and with Sanjay sir, you have to act with your whole body and give 100 percent focus.
“It’s not easy to work with him, but what happens there are times when you see something and you see an actor where you feel he or she is not into it, and with Sanjay sir, you cannot do that cheating with the master.”
Manisha Koirala has also supported the director. She also features in the show and was a part of Bhansali’s directorial debut Khamoshi: The Musical (1996).
Manisha, who plays Mallikajaan in the series, said that the filmmaker was “not a hard taskmaster, but a perfectionist”.
Further elaborating on Bhansali’s style of working, Manisha said:
“At the end of the day, Sanjay is a person who used to like his artists to be well prepared.
“But now he likes magic and he also changes things last minute.
“My first day of shooting on the set, I slowly started understanding what he is looking at and I just wanted to see Sanjay being happy with what I have done.
“I would start gaging Mallikajaan through his eyes.
“I could understand what he was looking at and what he was expecting me to do.
“So, slowly I navigated Mallikajaan and tried to match up to his vision.”
The comments of Richa Chadha come in the wake of Salman Khan’s comparison between Bhansali and Sooraj R Barjatya.
Salman hinted that the Black director should learn from Sooraj.
He said: “[Sanjay Leela Bhansali] was yelling, and apparently he does that a lot.
“I told him to hang out with Sooraj [R Barjatya] for a bit. He is throwing things.
“He told me, ‘Yeah, I am losing it’. I said that the first thing you do (is keep patience) to make your actor look beautiful.
“The Taj Mahal is made out of love. It works with love, not with hate.
“[Sooraj] knows if the actor is at his happiest best, he will perform the best.
“He creates an excellent atmosphere for his actors to perform in.
“Even if the shift is getting stretched, lights are going, he doesn’t bother.
“Instead, he works on collaborating with his actors.”
It has also been rumoured that Ranbir Kapoor put forward certain conditions before Bhansali for working with him in Love and War.
This was owing to an alleged bad experience that Ranbir had with Bhansali whilst working with him in Saawariya (2007).
Meanwhile, Richa Chadha plays Lajjo in Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar.
The show is set to be premiered on Netflix on May 1, 2024.
Watch the Heeramandi Trailer
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