Rise from the ashes: The Sanjay Leela Bhansali tale

Who tipped the goons off about Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s new shooting location? It’s unbelievable that the filmmaker’s Padmavati is in trouble once again.

The Kolhapur shoot location was not revealed to anyone — not even to SLB’s mother or friends. How did then the goons who set fire to it know about it? People close to Padmavati are wondering how and why the same crew could be attacked so viciously, twice!

After the second attack on Tuesday night, the entire team of Padmavati was trying to keep SLB’s morale high in Kolhapur. They joked, sang, and teased one another. It was their way of fighting fear — darr lage toh gaana gaa (“Sing when afraid”). Not an easy thing to do, when your dream is savagely attacked twice.

This is not the first time SLB’s cinema has been attacked. He shot the epic Devdas under the most trying circumstances, with the producer in the hospital and funds drying up. The filmmaker would wait in the hospital lobby every evening for funds for the next day’s shoots. One day, when funds simply dried up, one of the lead players of Devdas refused to shoot. “Pehle paise, phir shooting,” she said, refusing to come out of her van. The words still echo in SLB’s ears.

And we all know about the protests and backlash after Bajirao Mastani. When it was released, a distinguished Marathi actor, known for his outspoken ways, called up SLB and abused him for showing their Maratha hero dancing. Then there was also the time the entire set of Black was razed to the ground.

None of this deterred him in the past. But will Sanjay make a comeback now? Wait and watch.