Sanjay Leela Bhansali is an ace filmmaker who has added to the rich history of Indian cinema in the past decades. Just like every artist, he also has a process that makes him create iconic films like Devdas and Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela. During an interview, he spoke about making the audience feel the emotions of his characters, be it through his screenplay, the costumes, the props in the set or the background score. Talking about his magnum opus, Bajirao Mastani, SLB stated that he wanted cinema watchers to feel the humiliation that Mastani felt when she was called the ‘other woman’.

While talking to The Hollywood Reported India about his process of filmmaking, Sanjay Leela Bhansali stated that for him, it’s the essence of that moment that he wants to create and make the audience resonate with it. He stated that some scenes that become iconic come alive when he is creating them on sets and for that he has to be alive.

The filmmaker-music composer stated that his filmmaking is more than the hair fluttering or the eye moving. For him, it’s about moments, faces, about letting the audience feel in which place he is in. He went on to say that he wanted the viewers to feel the humiliation that Mastani felt (in Bajirao Mastani) “that she was loved by Bajirao but not being accepted by Bajirao and she was the other woman. I made Bajirao because there was a man who said ‘You’re not the other woman. You will come into my house because I love you.’ That is why I told that love story of a warrior.”

But to make the viewers feel the emotion, he made Tanvi Azmi’s character Radhabai and added layers to a scene to exude what he wants people to interpret. This is how he likes a film to be; to have mystery, enigma, a sense of unraveling that he is doing. Giving another example, Bhansali stated that the moment when Manisha Koirala’s character Mallikajaan from debut OTT series Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar, went to the fountain to purify herself after being assaulted by the Britishers came alive because during the making he questioned himself, ‘How am I going to make the audience feel what Manisha is feeling?’

Meanwhile, on the work front, Sanjay Leela Bhansali is all set to direct Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt and Vicky Kaushal in his next titled Love And War. The movie is expected to hit cinemas in March 2026.

Years ago, most of us felt that Ananya Panday was just another star kid who was launched by Karan Johar. Even CTRL director Vikramaditya Motwane did. Unlike the initial few movies, Ananya is shining with the choices of scripts that she has picked in recent times. The actress is also improving her acting skills. Ananya’s recent projects like Kho Gaye Hum Kahan, Call Me Bae, and CTRL speak a lot about her understanding of roles. Let’s dig deep into the ‘Gehraaiyaan’ of her career and how she is slowly understanding her assignment.  

After making her debut in Student of the Year 2, Ananya Panday was introduced to a round-table interview in which she came up with a new definition of struggle. How can I not talk about her remark, which turned into a meme a few years ago? The young actress equated success with celebrities’ appearances on Koffee With Karan by referring to her father, Chunky Panday’s struggle. 

A few years later, the CTRL actress showed signs of maturity to some extent while acknowledging how she blurted out her perspective on struggle back then. Ananya’s latest promotions have changed my mind about her, at least to some extent because of how candid she is. The Call Me Bae star is in the learning process, and there is nothing wrong with that.

“I cringe at myself all the time. I think I have gotten better looking at myself on screen,” Ananya said in a recent interview with Humans of Bombay. Yes, she has evolved since Shakun Batra offered her the role of Deepika Padukone’s on-screen sister, Tia, in Gehraiyaan. That’s what she is good at. Her ability to connect with contemporary themes that resonate with the current generation, be it her characters dealing with complex relationships, being a strong support for her friends, or navigating life in the influencer era. 

Ananya’s performance as Tia in Gehraiyaan stands out in a sequence when she learns about her fiance, Zain (Siddhant Chaturvedi), having an affair. The intensity in her eyes is also visible in a confrontation scene from Kho Gaye Hum Kahan. In the 2023 film, Ananya, as Ahana Singh, is portrayed as a great friend to Imaad Ali and Neil Pareira (Siddhant and Adarsh Gourav), especially for how she pitches a business plan.

CTRL, her latest project, is another example of her improved performances. In Motwane’s directorial, she experiments with the layers of her character’s dealings with AI.

I can surely admire Ananya for not “accepting” Arjun Reddy as a character on Koffee With Karan in 2022 and admitting she would not date a guy like him. Her approach to not aligning herself with Arjun Reddy or Kabir Singh, for that matter, reflects her understanding of characters.

It is refreshing to see Ananya working actively on her career. The Call Me Bae star is the hero when she is handed the reign to lead projects about social media and new-age relationships. While the actress has a long way to go, she has the potential to be the next star of her generation. Let her be, shall we?