Vikramaditya Motwane reveals if Sanjay Leela Bhansali is a ‘megalomaniac’, says he ‘drove him nuts’

Filmmaker Vikramaditya Motwane has said Sanjay Leela Bhansali drove him ‘nuts’ when he first worked with him as an assistant director. Having worked in a DD show that gave him good money and enough freedom to exercise his will, Sanjay’s world of hard work was a ‘culture shock’ for Vikramaditya. Vikramaditya started his Bollywood journey as an assistant to Sanjay. (Also read| Vikramaditya Motwane’s Jubilee: Of cinema, by cinema and for cinema)

Asked if Sanjay is ‘a mad person who will drive you nuts with his megalomania’, Vikramaditya told Mid Day in an interview, “Sanjay lives, breathes, obsesses about the movies. His movies. You get it. There’s a search for perfection. That, at times feels unnatural. But when you’re a director yourself, you get it. You understand why (he functions that way). It’s not megalomania. It’s just that you’re so immersed in your movie, you’re so immersed in the telling of that movie, in creating that world and that universe. That is special, that is unique, that is typically him…”

He added, “(He) Drove me nuts because of what I was coming from before that. Before that, I worked on the show Disney Club.” The filmmaker said that he shot for four or five days and would get ₹8000 per month. He also had a lot of creative freedom while working on the DD show. “This was in 1990. Cut to, you are transported to a world which is a shock, where you are working 24 hours a day, seven days a week; and my salary is ₹2500 a month. But you also see his his hard work. When you see the general laziness in the industry, there’s a ‘chalta hai’ (happens). And you can see it in so many movies. The sound is terrible, the music’s terrible, and everything is terrible because of this ‘chalta hai’ attitude. That wasn’t the case with Sanjay.” Vikramaditya added that though Sanjay is great but working with him was a culture shock for him.

Vikramaditya Motwane is best known for his films such as Udaan, AK Vs AK, and Lootera. Vikramaditya’s latest outing is the Prime Video web show Jubilee. It features Aditi Rao Hydari and Aparshakti Khurana in lead roles. The show tells the story of the Hindi film industry from the 40s and 50s. It also features Prasenjit Chatterjee, Sidhant Gupta and Wamiqa Gabbi in important roles.