Sanjay Leela Bhansali is known to be a hard taskmaster and recently, his longtime collaborator, Monty Sharma, who has composed music for many of his films like Black and Saawariya, and also worked on the background music of Devdas, opened up about their work relationship. Sharma shared that while Bhansali allowed him a lot of space as an artiste, he also recalled how the filmmaker would make demands that were not in alignment with his vision. He also shared that during the making of Devdas, he had to postpone his wedding five times because SLB was worried about the film’s completion.
In a chat with Lallantop Cinema, Sharma was asked about Bhansali’s inclination towards music and if the director starts his day by listening to Lata Mangeshkar’s vocals. “I’m sure that’s possible but we have never seen that. We have only seen him getting angry,” he said with a laugh. Sharma was also involved in arranging the music for Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and recalled that Bhansali would repeatedly keep asking for “magic.” “One day, I just got up and I said, ‘Sanjay ji, if you want magic, you go to PC Sorcar. I am not a magician but I will create music. We would have a lot of nok-jhok,” he recalled and added that Bhansali gave him a lot of liberty to work in his style.
Talking about the title song of Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Monty Sharma said that Sanjay Leela Bhansali asked for 60 violins in an orchestra and when he sat down to record, Bhansali made a request at the last minute. “The entire orchestra was ready with 60 violins and everything and he came in at the last minute and said ‘Monty, kuch aur add kar de na‘. I said, ‘Sanjay ji khaane mein utna hi namak daalenge jitna daal sakte hain.’”
Sharma recalled another anecdote from Devdas and shared that Bhansali was really fond of the song “Silsila Yeh Chahat Ka” and wanted to include it through the background score but he was of another opinion, and did not use it in the way that the director wanted. “He walked in the morning and said, ‘Monty, what do you think of yourself? I have asked you to use the song repeatedly, you have not used it even once until 5 reels,” he recalled. As Sharma tried to explain himself, Bhansali told him, “Who listens to the background music? People listen to the song.” Sharma recalled, “And that was it. I snapped. I told my assistant to take out all the themes and music, just use songs everywhere.” After a couple of hours, Bhansali called him and said, “These assistants bug me, that’s why this happened. You just work with your conviction and continue with whatever you are doing.”
Monty Sharma described Sanjay Leela Bhansali as a “short-tempered” person who will not always yell at the person he is mad at, but show his anger towards other people so they can feel the anger around them. He then recalled postponing his wedding because Bhansali was worried about the completion of Devdas.
“I had postponed my wedding 5 times for Devdas,” he said and recalled that he went looking for a venue when his wedding was just two days away. At this point, Bhansali called him and criticised the film’s background score and said that even Shah Rukh Khan hated it. “He called and said, ‘Shah Rukh saw the thing and he said ‘sabse bakwas background hai (it’s the worst background).’ What have you done Monty?’ I was shocked. I said, ‘Sanjay ji, you have listened to the whole thing. How can you say that?’” When Sharma landed up at the studio, he found that someone had messed up the mixing of the song. “I told him, ‘Sanjay ji, you don’t do all of this, this is not your cup of tea.’ That entire thing was redone then,” he recalled.
