Ismail Darbar recalls his fallout with Sanjay Leela Bhansali during Netflix's 'Heeramandi': 'Won't work with him even for Rs 100 crore because...'

Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar absolutely exemplified the changing roles of women in cinema. Sanjay Leela Bhansali is a master at crafting powerful characters, and Heeramandi is no exception. Bhansali’s storytelling has inherent power because of the way he shapes his character and settings - not just the visual settings and the visual feasts he creates - it’s the power of the character in his stories that shine.

Right from Mallikajaan, Fareedan, Bibbojaan, Waheeda, to Lajjo and Alamzeb - the characters in the story are where you feel the muscle of the storytelling. By shining a light on the lives of courtesans in pre-colonial India, the series delves into women’s experiences that are often untold.  Bhansali  ’s signature attention to detail brings these women’s stories of love, betrayal, and resilience to life in a beautifully nuanced way.

Back in 2021, Sanjay Bhansali was set to reunite with his Devdas and Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam music composer Ismail Darbar for this web-series but then the two had a fallout. And the composer has shared why it happened in an interview with Vickey Lalwani.

Back in the day when Heeramandi was being made, there was a report that said, despite such a monumental star cast, it would be the music that would be the strongest element of the web series.

Ismail Darbar revealed, “I said, ‘Look, if I have to break the news, I won’t be scared of you; I’ll say it outright that yes, I said it…’ I still don’t know who that man was, but he put that news out and Sanjay found out.”

He added, “He called me into his office and asked, ‘Ismail, how could you say that?’ After that he said, ‘Alright, let it go.’ After that I understood that ‘let it go’ really meant that sooner or later he would put me in a position where I would leave Heeramandi myself. I left before that could happen.”

Will the duo work together again?

“It wasn’t because my music wasn’t in it. One thing I will say: if I had done the music for this Heeramandi, I would have made it immortal. What I had prepared, Sanjay wouldn’t even have been able to reach that level — this I know,” said the composer.

Darbar also said, “Today, if Sanjay comes and says to me, ‘Please do the music for my film, I’ll give you Rs 100 crore,’ I’ll tell him, ‘Pehli fursat mein chale jaa yahan se.”