Bhansali’s magnum opus

Sanjay Leela Bhansali had planned to announce his version of Baiju Bawra — a remake of the 1952 classic starring Bharat Bhushan, Meena Kumari, and Surendra — after Inshallah. But once the latter was shelved, the filmmaker decided to fast forward his announcement of the former, which will be released on Diwali 2021. Incidentally, even Deepika Padukone has announced the same date for her film Draupadi.

Bhansali has billed his film as ‘Baiju Bawra — revenge story of a maverick maestro’. Baiju, the son of a singer who was killed by palace guards at the court of Emperor Akbar, is told by his father on his death bed that Tansen, one of the nine jewels at Akbar’s court, was responsible for his death. So, Baiju seeks revenge.

“The film had over 13 songs – 17 in all including the short music pieces in the film — and is one musical that Bhansali always aspired to make. Earlier this year when Bhansali was in talks with actors for the film, it was rumoured that Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan would play the characters of Baiju and Tansen, respectively. And now we hear another rumour of Ajay Devgn tossing his name into the ring. But all these are conjectures and names will be made official after a while only,” says a source.

It will be interesting to see if Bhansali also uses the cult songs Naushad created for Baiju Bawra, including songs like O Duniya Ke Rakhwale, Man Tarpat Hari Darshan Ko Aaj, and Mohe Bhool Gaye Saawariya.

Filmmakers are calling it Bhansali’s most ambitious project till date. It can be recalled that both Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone made visits to the maverick filmmaker’s office recently.