Padmaavat: Sanjay Leela Bhansali is still in no mood to celebrate success

Although Padmaavat proved to be a blockbuster, the director of this magnum opus, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, is in no mood to celebrate the success.
“There is so much pain behind that success. We all know what the film and our entire team had to go through. There was a time when we thought we might not be able to release the film at all. But God was with us. And we managed to miraculously cross every hurdle,” says the filmmaker whose film has crossed the Rs 300-crore mark at the box office.

But SLB is not celebrating. “We give too much attention to numbers at the box office. Rather than making the films we want to, we are constantly looking at what works at the box office. If I had thought of the box office I wouldn’t have made Padmaavat,” says Sanjay, adding, “It has none of the so-called ingredients of a box office success. And I dared to cast one of our most successful young stars as a villain. If I had thought of box office, I’d have never made Khamoshi: The Musical or Saawariya.”

Talking about his favourite film, the director says given time and opportunity he would like to remake two of his unsuccessful films. “Khamoshi: The Musical and Saawariya are two of my most favourite films. The fact that they didn’t get wide commercial success could have a bearing on my partiality towards them. I’d love to remake them and correct the mistakes.”

What mistakes? “That shall remain with me until I do these films again,” he smiles.