Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar was released on May 1. The Netflix show also marked SLB’s OTT debut. From the larger-than-life sets to elaborate dresses and heavy jewellery, the female-led period drama has ticked all the boxes. Manisha Koirala, Sonakshi Sinha, Aditi Rao Hydari, Richa Chadha, Sanjeeda Shaikh and Sharmin Segal are part of the show. The project also features Adhyayan Suman, his father Shekhar Suman, and Fardeen Khan. Now, during an interaction with Bollywood Bubble, Manisha Koirala (Mallikajaan in the show) opened up about working with Sanjay Leela Bhansali. She also spoke about the intimate scene from episode 1, which features Shekhar Suman’s Nawab Zulfikar and Mallikajaan travelling in a horse carriage. The actress was asked if she was aware of the scene. She said, “See, every little thing Sanjay [Leela Bhansali] does, he tries to bring in a new element that we hadn’t thought of, and he does it. So even about this scene, when rehearsals were going on, it must have been new.”
Before this, Shekhar Suman also shared his thoughts about the intimate scene. Speaking to 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.”
The actor 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.”
Talking about Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s vision, 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.”
Shekhar Suman also revealed Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s reaction to his performance. He 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.”
