Daily Times

Bollywood heartthrob Fardeen Khan, who is set for a grand comeback with veteran filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s passion project ‘Heeramandi’, has revealed that the latter had brutally rejected him decades ago, before finally collaborating with him now.

In a new interview with an Indian media outlet, Fardeen Khan recalled approaching SLB for work in the early 2000s but was turned down.

When disclosed to Khan that Bhansali had a small role for him in ‘Black’, it came as a shocker to him. Sharing an anecdote from their first meeting in the early 2000s, the actor narrated, “You know I am going to narrate a story that I reminded Sanjay sir when I went to meet him for Wali Mohammed. I had gone to his office in the early 2000s to seek work. Obviously to get the opportunity to work with him. He met with me, we sat, we spoke for about 10-15 minutes.”

“He said, ‘You know Fardeen I don’t think we can work because I don’t see that fire in your eyes’,” Khan recounted.

He added, “At that time, of course, it felt brutal and I told him this time that even if that sounded brutal at the time, that’s exactly what I wanted to hear, I needed to hear rather. I thanked him for it.”

“He never told me about wanting to cast me in Black. I am hearing it for the first time. But just to have this chance to be able to work with a master craftsman like him, I am extremely grateful for it. It’s been a wonderful learning experience. It has enriched me on many levels,” expressed Khan.

Notably, prolific filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s hotly-anticipated digital debut ‘Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar’, explores the ‘stories of courtesans’ living in the red light district of Lahore, during the pre-independent India.

The web series starring Manisha Koirala, Sonakshi Sinha, Aditi Rao Hydari, Richa Chadha, Sanjeeda Sheikh and Sharmin Segal in the main roles, along with Farida Jalal, Fardeen Khan, Shekhar and Adhyayan Suman and Taha Shah, is scheduled to premiere on the streaming giant Netflix on May 1.