The breathtaking set of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s new Netflix series Heeramandi depicts a wonderful world where dance, poetry, fine arts, weaving, and jewelry-making are fostered, as well as a period when great artists traveled freely and without restrictions.

During his school days, Sanjay Leela Bhansali used to dream that the walls of his chawl, which was 250 square feet in size and congested in South Mumbai, would be stretched out 10 meters to create more space. His frustration with his modest home in comparison to his relatives’ homes occasionally interfered with his studies, as did his joy at seeing a larger home.

Bhansali sensed something was watching him, searching, in that little room. However, I prefer to get lost—especially in larger areas. During an exclusive tour of his three-acre set for his next eight-part series, The Diamond Bazaar, Bhansali tells AD, “So, I like big sets.” His first venture into the streaming space is a program that will debut on Netflix on May 1 and is based on the courtesans of Heera Mandi in pre-independence India. “While continuously pushing that wall ten meters further, I have arrived at set Heera mandi, my largest set yet, where boundaries have been pushed far beyond what I could have ever imagined as a child.”

The outer world within Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Gangubai Kathiawadi sets

Bhansali Production Heeramandi

Heera mandi surpasses all of Bhansali’s previous epics, including Devdas (2002), Bajirao Mastani (2015), and Padmaavat (2018). It’s an amazing show that surpasses all of them in terms of not just size but also artistic and architectural quality. 700 artisans labored nonstop for seven months at Mumbai’s Film City, erecting the set on about 60,000 timber planks and metal frameworks.

The floor is home to Mallikajaan’s Shahi Mahal, or royal palace, where Manisha Koirala plays Madam of the most influential brothel in Heera Mandi. The rival courtesan Fareedan’s apartments, the Khwabgaah, are portrayed by Sonakshi Sinha. Beautifully decorated to exude opulence and highlight the exquisite textiles, arts, and crafts of the era, the magnificent white mosque, expansive courtyard, dancing hall with water fountains, colonial-looking room that appears to be a young prince’s quarters, roads, shops, and other smaller kothas, along with a hammam room.

Bhansali’s Imagination and  Quietly Develop

The intricately carved wooden doors, the delicate frescoes, the colonial portraits of British soldiers, the intricate Mughal miniature paintings on the walls, the enamel carving on the floor, the filigree work on the window frames, and even the chandeliers are all handcrafted and supervised by Bhansali. Bhansali personally bought a few of the couches and tables utilized in the series for his own collection from an antique store in Amdavad, which brought the furniture made of teak wood dating back to the 1930s and 1940s. The store, situated across 15 acres, is a museum unto itself.

Heeramandi’s set is an authentic township that came directly from Bhansali’s imagination and took 18 years to quietly develop. The set is his idea of what Heera Mandi, the pinnacle of art and culture, would have looked like—a place where poetry was taken seriously and classical dances were fostered. It is the place where the characters that he has laboriously crafted call home. “I make special places for characters that I really love,” Bhansali explains.  “Until I get things right, I chew their brains.”

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Bhansali is always improvising, tweaking, and fixing things on site. Occasionally, the crew takes apart items entirely and then puts them back together. Sometimes, the whole crew works to achieve the worn-out or distressed look Bhansali wants for wall texture or carpet.

Crafting Cinematic Universes: Inside the Creative Mind of Sanjay Leela Bhansali

It can take a while to even acquire the perfect golden colour for what looks to be a straightforward glass sticker. As he shows us around the set, a member of Bhansali’s crew remarks, “That’s how many details sir wants.”
We’ll soon understand his meaning. Upon Bhansali’s arrival, his staff swiftly revamps the setup for our conversation with the master creator, crafted painstakingly for hours. “Bring that table, not this one. He tells his staff, “Get this chair, not that, put it here, not there,” as they tremble to live up to his high expectations.

Regarding Bhansali’s concept for his set, there can be no discussions or compromises. It’s where everything comes to pass. Bhansali claims, “I give it my all where I position the camera and create the frame. You can’t merely put your characters in a set that you build. “No, that is not how it operates. Continuing, he praises directors Kamal Amrohi and Satyajit Ray for their adeptness in using sets to advance storytelling through architecture. Bhansali asserts that one derives even the design of a single pillar from the depths of their mind.

He constructs his imagined world from references he has collected over the course of a lifetime. Inspired by Kamathipura’s dilapidated walls, Bhansali recalls his boyhood house’s faded walls and the antiques he saw in Chor Bazaar. The individual asserts, “My upbringing was in a modest, middle-class household where museum and art gallery visits were not typical.” Therefore, he meticulously preserved for an extended period of time within the confines of his mind what he had observed in the world around him. Over time, the reference collection grew to include works by favorite artists like SH Raza’s “Bindu” and VS Gaitonde’s textures.

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Bhansali’s Universes, Particularly the Series Set

Additionally, Bhansali’s universes, particularly the series set, are very different from reality in similar ways to these. It doesn’t resemble the authentic Heera Mandi found in Pakistan at all. He asserts, “It can never be real because art is not real.” Can a painting by Gaitonde be brought into reality, similar to the way one is imbued with a Kishori Amonkar raag? It’s not possible. He feels that art is what makes you feel something. He says it’s best to leave that experience unanalysed because it might be joy, anguish, discomfort, or something else entirely.

Despite his mastery in producing painting-like frames rich in visual details, his sets and frames often undergo thorough analysis. Naturally, this is excellent news for a filmmaker because people frequently tell him that when they watch his films for the first time, they lose track of the story and feel forced to watch them again. Even so, he declines to direct the viewer’s sight within his compositions. According to Bhansali, “the audience sees what they want to see.” Yet, he enjoys holding a shot, constructing a frame, and then simply observing as everything falls into place effortlessly.

I constantly ponder whether the audience will value the table or discern significance in the fresco behind Mallikajaan. His goal is to create frames and images that are deserving of the title “painting.” But there’s still a long way to go, Bhansali adds. He knows how much work it takes to pull off the feat. When the box office’s success and failure release someone. Only when one’s art is freed is it feasible. Only by facing terror like Ray and Akira Kurosawa did can I hope to claim that I did it too one day.

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He currently focuses solely on perfecting the wall, intending to write, paint, and create a captivating, magical space.