'Bhansali Teaches You Without A Danda'

‘When you walk on to a Sanjay Leela Bhansali set, it is complete surrender. You have to become a sponge.’

Aditi Rao Hydari looks even more beautiful as Bibbojaan in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar, which will stream on Netflix from May 1.

She worked with the director before in Padmavaat, and counts herself doubly blessed to get repeated in his next.

While she refuses to share what fiance Siddharth thought of Bibbojaan (“I will not tell you that in this interview!”), Aditi gives a glimpse into the shoot:

“One day, Sanjay sir kept me hungry because I had to do a scene which was full of fire.

He said, ‘Aaj khana mat khana’, and that helped me get that simmering sense of injustice.”

How did you get Heeramandi?

It was one of my dreams, growing up, to work with Sanjay sir and I’m lucky I have worked with him before.

But this was incredible because I got so much more time with him. It was like greed being fulfilled of just having Sanjay sir for so much longer.There’s a slight back story to when I first got that call.

In between the lockdowns, I went to meet him because I was missing him.

The first thing he said was, ‘Kitni patli ho gayi hai, khaana khao!’ So he fed me.

A couple of months later, I was travelling for the promotions for a South Indian film that I had done. I had got a call from the producer of that film, saying, ‘Congratulations, we have 100 percent occupancy in theatres.’

That was a big deal because this was just after COVID.

10 minutes later, I got another call saying, when are you coming back to Bombay? We need to do a look test (for Heeramandi).

I was like, I don’t know what it is about this day, but there’s something right. The universe is looking out for me.