Actor Chhaya Kadam is having a great period in her career. She appeared in Payal Kapadia’s award-winning film All We Imagine As Light and was praised for her roles in Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies and Kunal Kemmu’s Madgaon Express. Recently, Chhaya talked about working with Sanjay Leela Bhansali on Gangubai Kathiawadi. She mentioned that while people often focus on Bhansali’s temper, they don’t talk enough about the creative freedom he gives his actors.
In an interview with Zoom, Chhaya described Bhansali as a perfectionist who pays attention to details. She said she had heard about his on-set temper and saw it herself, but she understood it. She said, “I felt that he has the right… If he has thought so much about his film, and if we come in the end and ruin it, then how will it be okay for him? I saw some things there… when he got upset. I thought ‘This is not how it works’ and ‘I haven’t worked on such a set before’. But afterwards, we just spoke once and everything was clear after that. Post that, it was smooth sailing.”
Chhaya remembered that during a dance sequence, Bhansali let her choreograph for her character. She said that although the choreographer had some steps ready, Bhansali wasn’t happy with them. He asked her how she thought Rashmibai would dance. “The choreographer had some other steps for Rashmibai. Sir saw it once and he left. He came back and asked me how would Rashmibai perform? Then I thought about it and I showed it to him. He really liked it. He gives a lot of freedom. People only talk about his anger but getting this kind of freedom is also very important,” she said.
Not long back, Shekhar Suman had echoed similar thoughts. “How does it matter (if he’s short-tempered)?” Shekhar had asked Siddharth Kannan in a recent interview. “He has every right to be. Why does he get angry? He’s not a madman, but he is a perfectionist. You will always notice that perfectionists are short-tempered because they get impatient with everybody else for not being at their level. I know of so many people who are legends in their craft but are also short-tempered. K Asif was like this, Mehboob Khan was like this, Raj Kapoor was like this.” He continued, “It doesn’t matter what they say about Bhansali. He has every right to be angry. In fact, I would want him to be even angrier, considering what we’re getting in return. Look at what he’s creating, not only for us but for posterity.”
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