[ad_1]
Actor Jason Shah, who appeared as the villainous Cartwright in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s debut streaming series Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar, spoke about the ‘stressful’ atmosphere on set, and the lack of communication that he received about his character from Bhansali’s assistants. In an interview, he said that he didn’t really have any conversations with Bhansali, and that he would’ve preferred more creative interactions because they would’ve helped his performance.
Chatting with Bollywood Now, the actor said that he received conflicting directions on set from Bhansali and his assistants, which only impacted his performance further. He said that he would’ve personally preferred to have played the cruel Cartwright more humanely, but was expressly told by Bhansali to avoid injecting warmth in his performance. “I’m thankful for the opportunity, but I felt there could have been a slightly different touch. When I asked Sanjay if I like these women, he looked at me and said ‘no’.”
Jason continued, “But a couple of days later with his other director, Mitakshara, when I was working with her, she asked me, ‘Why are you so cold with these women?’ I said, ‘Because Sanjay sir said that I don’t like them’. I felt I could’ve kept it a little softer and not been so stand-offish in a way. We’re humans, right? Even an officer sleeping with a prostitute, and having that relationship, eventually, over time, there is a certain softness that comes with it…”
Jason said that Bhansali never actually directed him. “It was mostly the other directors that were there. The most he asked me was, ‘Do you think we got this shot?’ And that was the wide in the scene where Mallikajaan gets raped. One time he looked at me and told me, ‘You’re looking a little fat today’. And I was a little bloated… There wasn’t a lot that he was putting into my character. I wanted to sit with him a little bit more, understand a little bit more.”
Jason said that he wasn’t given the entire script to read beforehand, so had no idea about the show’s larger narrative. He also said that he would often show up on set and not be told whom he’d be performing with that day, and was regularly given just 45 minutes to finish his scenes. All of this robbed him of the opportunity to add more nuance to his performance. “I felt that there was a lot of stress to get things done. There were two units working most of the time, so that could also be stressful for the team,” he said.
Starring Manisha Koirala, Sonakshi Sinha, Aditi Rao Hydari, Sharmin Segal, Richa Chadha and Sanjeeda Shaikh, Heeramandi is set in pre-Independence India, and was released on Netflix on May 1 to mixed reviews.
Click for more updates and latest Bollywood news along with Entertainment updates. Also get latest news and top headlines from India and around the world at The Indian Express.
[ad_2]
