From Devdas To Heeramandi, Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Artistic Obsession with Courtesans Explained

If you are a big fan of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's work, like most of us, you must have noticed that his art keeps returning to Tawaifs or courtesans or sex workers. Most of his films have a mention of brothels and workers, and he always shows them in a respectful light. They are poised with beauty, grace and ethos. First, it was Chandramukhi (played by Madhuri Dixit) in Devdas, then Mastani (played by Deepika Padukone) in Bajirao Mastani, then Gangubai (essayed by Alia Bhatt) in Gangubai Kathiawadi and now his web series Heeramandi.

In Bhansali's world, we respect, adore and even sympathise with the courtesans. If you also wonder why SLB is obsessed with them, it is because he grew up in a red-light area.

Why do most Sanjay Leela Bhansali films have courtesans?

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Many people don't know that the ace filmmaker's father was a film producer. However, unlike Bhansali, he wasn't successful. When he couldn't make successful movies, he started alcohol. He was so intoxicated always that he failed to take responsibility for his family. The director's mother took charge to earn for the family and took up the job of a dancer in Gujarati theatre. Besides, she would also sew clothes to support her kids' education. This is the reason why he grew up in a chawl very close to Kamathipura¨Cthe red light area of Mumbai.

Also Read: Sanjay Leela Bhansali Saw Sex Workers Offering Services For Rs 20 As Child, Calls It 'Inhuman'

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Sharing his experience, he had once said, "You're sensitive to what you see as a child." He added that he saw sex workers saying this (hand gesture to ask for Rs 20) to people who were passing by. This left him wondering as a child, "How could a person's rate be Rs 20? These were the things that stayed in my mind."

What Bhansali saw as a child in real life is what is reflected in his films.

"We lived in a very poor house. We had no paint on the walls. Mom was a wonderful dancer, so she would dance in that small (space). We didn¡¯t have good clothes to wear. So, there were a lot of things that I felt deprived of as a child, and my mind was always a filmmaker¡¯s mind. When I was sitting and doing homework as a child, I would wonder what colour should the wall be. My mind was preoccupied with finding beauty in that lack of beauty, or lack of space. My sets are humungous because of that. We were all crammed into¡­ Almost breathing onto each other," he had once said in an interview.

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