Subhash K Jha

Mumbai: As accolades pour in from every corner for the exemplary ‘Black’, director Sanjay Leela Bhansali is on top of the world. It had been a challenge, a journey against popular beliefs, an experiment once again, for the director who’s always dared to tread the untaken path. Excerpts from an interview:

Why did pundits declare ‘Black’ a non-starter?

They’re still living in the 1980’s and 90’s. They must change with the times. Amitabh Bachchan, Rani and I have been flooded with praise. It’s overwhelming. They’re calling Amitabh Bachchan god and Rani Mukherjee, the ultimate actress we have today. I feel like singing “Aaj main oopar...” that Majrooh Sultanpuri wrote for my ‘Khamoshi’.

No one thought a film about a deaf-and-blind girl would create such impact.

Why do we undermine the audience’s intelligence? It started when the star system came on, when some filmmakers decided, “If we’ve a big star in the film we don’t need to work hard”. I think the star system brought in a kind of complacency. Recently sleaziness also has crept in.

So is ‘Black’ your least compromised work?

I wouldn’t say the songs and dances of ‘Hum Dil...’ and ‘Devdas’ made them compromised. I’m a dancer by temperament. Songs and dances belonged to those films. They weren’t part of ‘Black’. This time I wanted to explore a dark area of my mind and bring my vision into the light. ‘Black’ is my most fearless film. — HNS