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Actor Jason Shah, who played the villainous British officer Cartwright in the recent Netflix series Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar, spoke about the differences in opinion that he had with some of the creative decisions that were made during the shoot. He confessed that series creator and filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali didn’t direct many of his scenes, and said that he would have loved to have had more of a say in how his character was presented in the show.
Appearing on the Inside the Mind with Rushabh podcast, Jason revealed that he raised his concerns, but that if he’d registered more complaints, he would have been labelled a ‘problem maker’. Asked why he felt dissatisfied, Jason explained, “It was his first time (doing a web series). Film is a little different because web is a little stretched, you’ve got a lot of episodes to make, and it’s not made in a short time… He also wasn’t directing that much. I had other directors with me. I just felt we could’ve worked on it a little more, and a lot more colour could’ve come out. It had the capacity, I feel.”
Jason said that there was a ‘lack of communication’ on set, as opposed to there being ‘miscommunication’. He said that he could’ve done more with Cartwright had he been given more freedom. “What didn’t happen was the depth of the character. If you look at Gandhi, with Ben Kingsley, they really show how far racism can go, and the dichotomy between who someone thinks they are, and another human being…” Asked if he raised these concerns with Bhansali, Jason replied with a laugh, “I think I said enough. I would’ve become a problem maker if I said more.”
Previously, Jason had said that the Heeramandi set lacked ‘the basic niceties of human nature’, as he complained about being kept in the dark about creative decisions, and being made to complete all his scenes at the end of the day, in a limited amount of time. He also revealed that Bhansali’s assistants directed most of his scenes, and that he would often get conflicting direction from different people.
Set in pre-Independence India, Heeramandi revolved around the lives of courtesans and noblemen in Lahore. The show received mixed reviews, with praise for Bhansali’s vision, but criticism for some performances. A second season has been announced.
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