Sanjay Leela Bhansali spoke about how he became emotional after watching Ranbir Kapoor’s performance in the climax scene of Saawariya.
Ranbir Kapoor made his acting debut alongside Sonam Kapoor with Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s romantic drama Saawariya in 2007. Prior to that, the actor worked as an assistant director to Bhansali. Though Saawariya, upon its release, turned out to be a box office flop, Ranbir Kapoor’s impressive acting chops did become a talking point.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali, in his recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, spoke about how he had spotted Ranbir’s acting talent right when they worked together on this film. He recalled how he wept after watching the actor’s performance in the climax scene of Saawariya.
The filmmaker said, “It’s one of the favourite pieces of mine of what an actor can do.. of 7 minutes of complete silence. The way he performed, magic in one shot. And I would sit there and just cry and watch him because I realized he was an actor. There’s a good boy, bad boy, nice person, bad person, nothing. He is a great actor.”
Saawariya, based on Fyodor Dostoevsky’s 1848 short novel ‘White Nights’, revolves around a kind-hearted tramp who falls for a girl who is awaiting her long-lost lover.
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Bhansali added that an artist should never be good or bad. According to him, the art and the source from where it stems and emerges should be pure, for that purity to reach the audience.
While recalling his words to Ranbir when the actor assisted him on films, the ‘Devdas’ director said, “Ranbir, when he was assisting me, I said, ‘You are a great actor, you have talent that’s second to none’.”
Interestingly, Ranbir Kapoor, in his previous interviews, had candidly admitted that he didn’t have the most positive experience when he was working as an assistant director to Bhansali. Calling the filmmaker a tough taskmaster, he had opened up on how the experience ‘hardened’ him for future.
Meanwhile, after more than a decade, Ranbir Kapoor and Sanjay Leela Bhansali are now teaming up for Love And War which also stars Alia Bhatt and Vicky Kaushal.
