Bollywood’s most distinguished war of creative differences is now over. Filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Salman Khan who have been locked in an intense cold war for the last five years, will now join hands once again.
So intense was the animosity that when SLB’s sister Bela Sehgal invited Salman to see her directorial debut, Salman had replied, ‘Anything for you. But not for that so-and-so’. But the duo have finally put their differences behind them, hugged, made peace and agreed to work together in another film.
The peace-making process began a year back when Bhansali and Khan met at the latter’s residence for a possible project together.
Sources close to the two say, SLB and Salman have been in touch since then. Recently when SLB’s shooting of Padmavati was disrupted in Rajasthan, Salman was one of the first people to call and enquire about his one-time best-friend’s well-being.
And now Khan and Bhansali have agreed to work together in a film that promises to be “the Devdas of the new millennium.” An intense love story with dark undertones, it will be the ultimate olive branch from the director who fell out with the superstar when Bhansali offered Devdas to Shah Rukh Khan.
Salman, who supported Bhansali’s talent from the time the director made his debut in Khamoshi: The Musical (1996), felt betrayed when Devdas went to his fiercest rival, Shah Rukh Khan.
The new love story which will be shot immediately after Padmavati is completed, will mark the renewal of one of Bollywood’s most influential director-actor team that gave us Khamoshi The Musical, Hum….Dil De Chuke Sanam and Saawariya. It also signals the culmination of the Ranveer-Deepika collaboration with Bhansali that produced the trilogy - Ram Leela, Bajirao Mastani and the forthcoming Padmavati.
The leading lady for the SLB-Salman collaboration of 2018 is yet to be decided. Deepika Padukone, with whom Salman’s pairing remains to be seen, is a very strong contender.
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