00:30In a dish called patty shepta, which looks like a dosa,
00:34it has coconut and mawa powder.
00:36It's like a dosa, very nice.
00:38And in my childhood memories, there was a puli pitha,
00:41which was fried and then boiled in milk kheer.
00:46This used to happen.
00:47And after that, because I was in Delhi,
00:50there was Lodi and winters.
00:53So on the day of Makar Sankranti,
00:54we used to have gajak, which was very important for us.
01:00It was a very exciting time.
01:08We used to fly kites too.
01:09My brother used to make manja.
01:12And my job was to ride a charkhari,
01:15and to feed it to Guddi.
01:16I think it's everyone's dream.
01:25All the actors in our country,
01:27or all the artists,
01:28now I will even say internationally,
01:29all of them have a desire to work in the direction of Mr. Sanjay Leela Bansali.
01:35And that dream of mine was fulfilled in 2022-23,
01:39by doing Heera Mandi.
01:40This experience cannot be described.
01:45Because he is such a person,
01:47everyone calls him a perfectionist,
01:48everyone says that he scolds at his work.
01:52But I will say that he is a very soft person.
01:55He loves his actors a lot.
01:57In the morning, when you go and meet him,
02:00I always used to greet him,
02:01so when I used to greet him,
02:03he used to give me such a lovely hug.
02:05And there used to be a whole day's discussion,
02:06what kind of scene it would be, what it wouldn't be.
02:08He is a very, very democratic director, I must say.
02:12He is a very intelligent director,
02:15that whatever good he gets from somewhere,
02:18he does it himself.
02:20Whether it is in the dialogues,
02:22or in the characterisation,
02:23or in the discussions.
02:24If he feels that this is right for his scene,
02:27this is right for his show,
02:29or this is right for the film,
02:30then he accepts it.
02:32Even if he is an actor like me,
02:36he does not hesitate to accept it.
02:40What could be a better quality of a director
02:43that he accepts from everybody,
02:46and then he matches it with his vision.
02:54I did not feel any pressure on set.
02:56Not because of that,
02:57because my theatre training is with Mr. Ibrahim Alkazi,
03:00and I have also worked with directors like Firoz Khan.
03:05So that is why I know
03:06that how much effort is required for perfectionism,
03:10and what vision is required,
03:12and what picture they want to portray.
03:14Everything is like a painting.
03:16So I had this experience from my theatre training.
03:19So I was mentally well prepared
03:21that when I am going to work with Mr. Sanjay Leela Bhansali,
03:25it is going to be a big work.
03:27His vision is big,
03:28and that vision,
03:29on screen,
03:31to the best of my capability,
03:33I have to enliven it in his direction.
03:37I have to bring it to life.
03:45Not at all.
03:46Not at all.
03:47You are absolutely right.
03:49Considering the time restraints,
03:51can you create that kind of grandeur on television?
03:56No.
03:56To create that kind of grandeur,
03:58you need a lot of time,
04:00a lot of people,
04:01a lot of patience,
04:03and to achieve that perfection,
04:07you need a different mindset.
04:09We have to deliver 22-23 minutes every day.
04:13How can we show grandeur in that?
04:14The second thing is,
04:16I would like to say this to the people on television,
04:20I would like to say this to the audience,
04:22when people say,
04:23we have shot it like a film.
04:26Television is like television.
04:27There is a way to shoot on every platform.
04:31The sooner we understand it,
04:33the better it is.
04:34We can uplift it to a certain extent
04:36because visually it has to look beautiful,
04:38visually it has to look good,
04:39visually it has to look dramatic.
04:41That is why we can shoot to a certain extent.
04:43But if it becomes too grand,
04:46I have seen it on television,
04:48I have noticed that it is not that effective
04:51because television is a different medium,
04:54the camera is different,
04:55the set-up is different.
04:56I have been listening to this for 50 crore years.
05:03I have been listening to it since social media came.
05:07I have been listening to it since OTT platforms came.
05:09Television is gone, television is gone, television is gone.
05:12It will go away now, there is not much time.
05:14But I have been seeing for so many years
05:16that television is sustaining.
05:18A lot of OTT channels have shut down,
05:20a lot of OTT channels' budgets have been cut so much
05:25that a lot of people don't want to work on it.
05:27So that is why I will say that television is sustaining.
05:30In tier 2, tier 3,
05:32the women who sit at home and watch,
05:34the families who watch, the cities that we have,
05:36television is still running well on that.
05:38Now we don't watch TRP, we watch Time Spend.
05:41So the scale has changed a bit.
05:43We watch TRP but we don't pay attention to it.
05:45Nowadays people pay attention to Time Spend.
05:47Channels like Dangal never pay attention to TRP,
05:51they pay attention to Time Spend.
05:52And their Time Spend is from 22 minutes to 20 minutes.
05:57So that is why I am saying that television is alive
05:59and it is running well.
06:06I really wish that Hira Mandi
06:10is released in theatres as well.
06:12Because the first two episodes that I saw of the premiere,
06:15I saw them on a big screen, I saw them on a big screen.
06:20So that is why I will say that it had a wonderful effect.
06:23If you sit at home and watch Hira Mandi on your phone,
06:28then you will never understand the series.
06:33Its grandness, its subtleties,
06:36its dialogues, expressions, music, dance,
06:40you will never find it so effective.
06:43When you see it on a slightly bigger screen,
06:45only then you will see its effect.
06:49So I noticed this because I saw the first two episodes
06:53on a bigger screen.
06:54So yes, I would request the OTT platform Netflix
06:59to release it in theatres.
07:02Whether it is in four parts,
07:04or it will be released in four hours.
07:08So if it happens, but if we can see it on a bigger screen
07:11and the audience can also see it,
07:12then it will be a lot of fun.
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