Is Sanjay Leela Bhansali The Only Director In Today’s Times Taking Forward The Legacy Of The Indian Film Heritage?

Taking up the legacy of real and authentic cinema ahead, the filmmaker recently introduced the world of ‘Heeramandi’ and gave the audiences a frenzy treat of his kind of cinema having kept all the detailing and pureness of his kind of cinema intact.

With his films and now web series, Bhansali is always known to create a new world of the protagonist for the audiences to dive into, giving the cinemagoers a visual treat. When we watch his film, we are in the universe of Bhansali’s creative aesthetics which he had once envisioned in his mind. This exactly takes us back and reminds us of the era of filmmakers like K Asif, Mehboob Khan, V Shantaram, Guru Dutt, and Kamal Amrohi?- the 60s to 90s prolific cinema. While the audience was craving more of such marvellous and pure cinema, they were reintroduced to authentic cinema with every realism and celebration of cinema viewing, by Bhansali.

Currently, he’s one of the only filmmakers who is taking the baton ahead of our Indian film heritage or Bollywood as we are known worldwide.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali has always created wonders with his films. His movies are not just ruling the hearts of the audiences upon release, setting the box-office on fire but also all his films have been at the forefront of sweeping all awards that year. While ‘Padmaavat’ swiped all the major awards when it was released, a recent example being ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ which also won very big at the Filmfare Awards 2023. Probably the only films of his that didn’t work at the box-office were ‘Saawariya’ and ‘Guzaarish’. Even though the Hrithik Roshan-Aishwarya Rai starrer was very highly acclaimed by the critics, it couldn’t bring in the big moolah at the ticket windows. The Ranbir Kapoor-Sonam Kapoor film didn’t connect with the audiences at all, and took.?The date?remains his biggest failure. Besides, ‘Saawariya’, the only other time that the world saw the ace filmmaker defeated was when Salman Khan walked out of his project ‘Inshallah’ which also starred Alia Bhatt. Things seemed slightly bleak, but he was back with ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’, which went on to become a huge hit. These ups and downs have set an example of a bonafide successful filmmaker.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali and his marvellous style of filmmaking is indeed a treat for the modern era. He is one such filmmaker from Indian cinema who has evolved with time and introduced new faces of modernity in his films yet has maintained the original aesthetics. He is that one storyteller with a vision who never felt the need for crutches that visual effects offered to large-canvas films. He is rather known to create his canvases from scratch, obsessively passionate about every minute detail that brings perfection to each of his frames.

The filmmaker is working on his next 'Heeramandi' nowadays which promises to be a visual treat from his end of the world. Touted to be a game changer in the OTT space, ‘Heeramandi’ dives deeper into the world of courtesans, where they were the queens. Moreover, with a filmography spanning 27 years, and having brought audiences cinematic gems like ‘Khamoshi’, ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’, ‘Devdas’, ‘Black’, ‘Goliyon Ki Raas Leela Ram Leela’, ‘Bajirao Mastani’, ‘Padmaavat’ and ‘Gangubai Kathiadwadi’, all of which are even fondly remembered to this day, here's celebrating the man - the legacy that is Sanjay Leela Bhansali.