Sanjay Leela Bhansali Saw Sex Workers Offering Services For Rs 20 As Child, Calls It 'Inhuman'
Sanjay Leela Bhansali who grew up in a chawl near Kamathipura said that he has seen sex workers offering services for just Rs 20.
Not many people know that Sanjay Leela Bhansali grew up in a chawl that was very close to Kamathipura, the red light area of Mumbai, which is also the subject of his recently released movie Gangubai Kathiawadi.
From Chandramukhi to Gangubai and his forthcoming film Heeramandi, Bhansali's movies always have a special place for sex workers because of his childhood.
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"You're sensitive to what you see as a child," Bhansali said adding that he saw sex workers saying this (hand gesture to ask for Rs 20) to people who were passing by.
He wonders, "How could a person's rate be Rs 20? These were the things that stayed in my mind."
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He said that before Gangubai, he couldn't project them like he wanted to in any of his films.
"I was finding them through Chandramukhi¡ We are priceless for ourselves, we can¡¯t be tagged. We can¡¯t be sold for Rs 5 or Rs 20 or Rs 50. It is inhuman."
"I would ask my mom, what is this. She would tell me we cannot talk about it, you're too young for this."
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"Their faces have tremendous stories. They put so much makeup to hide the pain and grief. How can you camouflage that? Even the reatest makeup artist cannot take it away."
Sanjay Leela Bhansali's next film is Heermandi, which is based on lives of courtesans of Lahore.
About the film, he told Variety, "Heeramandi is an important milestone in my journey as a filmmaker. This is an epic, first of its kind series based on the courtesans of Lahore. It is an ambitious, grand and all-encompassing series; therefore I am nervous yet excited about making it. I am looking forward to my partnership with Netflix and bringing Heeramandi to audiences all over the world."
"It is a huge saga about the courtesans of Lahore, it is something I was living with for 14 years. It¡¯s very vast and ambitious," he added.
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Garima Satija leads the Entertainment vertical of Indiatimes. A storyteller at heart who enjoys the thrill of writing, she is sometimes found daydreaming about living the lives of movie characters. Also, she hates talking about herself in the third person.
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