Sanjay Leela Bhansali‘s Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar is undoubtedly a star-studded project. With actors like Sonakshi Sinha, Manisha Koirala, Aditi Rao Hydari, and Richa Chadha, the Netflix show is winning the hearts of the audience. Recently, Shekhar Suman, who plays Nawab Zulfikar in the series, discussed an intimate scene from episode 1, that features Zulfikar and Mallikajaan (played by Manisha Koirala). Shekhar recounted how director Sanjay Leela Bhansali offered a unique interpretation of the original script while filming the sequence. During a conversation with Zoom, Shekhar shared, “Normally like any other actor, I just went completely prepared with my line what was given to me with my own interpretation. When the scene was just about to begin, he called me and said, ‘I have thought of a bizarre interpretation of this. Are you open to it?’ I said, ‘Yes’, and he completely turned it around and it was something that nobody had thought.”
Shekhar Suman continued, “He, (Sanjay Leela Bhansali) out of the blue, he probably thought that this is done to death kind of thing. Let me do it this way. So it’s about this Nawab, who is pissed drunk, is peeing out of a carriage pulled by Mallikajaan. And he is trying to, in his state of inebriation, trying to make it out with her.”
Sharing the filmmaker’s idea, Shekhar Suman added, “He (Sanjay Leela Bhansali) said, ‘No, turn the other way around. And then he (Nawab Zulfikar) takes a fellatio, sort of an oral s*x mid-air, thinking that Mallikajaan is sitting on that side. And he (Nawab Zulfikar) is convinced because he is nawab and he has turned. So Mallikajaan says, ‘What are you doing? I’m here.’ He says, ‘No. I know what I’m doing, and I know you are here.’ So, that was a very strange interpretation and that has not been done by any actor or director ever before that somebody is having s*x mid-air. But done nicely.”
The actor also recalled Sanjay Bhansali saying, “I am fine. If you say no, because I just thought of it. Do you find it too bizarre?”
“I said, ‘No, nothing is bizarre. In this life, nothing is bizarre.’ I said I would do it and it was the first take. A drunken scene, somebody is in a state of stupor, which becomes a very difficult scene to perform because then either you are over or you’re under. You don’t get the right shot…but somehow I understood the tonality of it. I understood the gravitas of it,” Shekhar Suman added.
Explaining Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s reaction to his performance, Shekhar Suman said, “I did that. As I said, I did that very instinctively and he came running and said, ‘Magnificent, magnificent.’ So that was it. It was a pack-up after that and all the technicians came running and said, ‘Thank you. Otherwise, this scene would have gone on and on because of the way he is. He is a stickler. If any other actor had not caught the sur, then it would be another 6 hours, 7-8 hours. But it just happens so right because I knew that the person who is standing in front of me, what he has explained to me, and what I have assimilated the outcome is going to be just right.”
Shekhar Suman has also shared a video of this scene on Instagram. Take a look:
Shekhar Suman’s son Adhyayan Suman is also seen in Heeramandi: the Diamond Bazaar.
