Sanjay Leela Bhansali says only this Bollywood star has stayed friendly with him over the years

Sanjay Leela Bhansali is one of the most celebrated directors of Bollywood and is known for his films as Devdas, Black, Padmaavat and the recent Netflix series Heeramandi. During the promotion of his latest web series, the acclaimed director spoke about the importance of loving his actors and revealed that Salman Khan is the only actor who has stayed friendly with him over the years and that he calls him every month to check on him.

Also read: 5 reasons to watch Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s magnum opus Heeramandi 

Sanjay Leela Bhansali on the relationship with his actors

During a conversation with Bollywood Hungama, Sanjay Leela Bhansali was asked if he is friends with his actors. Bhansali replied that he loves his actors and believes that the director-actor relationship should not be of friends, rather the director should love his actors. Speaking further on this, Bhansali replied that the only person he is friendly with is Salman Khan. “Even if (the movie) Inshallah did not happen, he stands by me, he’ll call me, he’ll care for me and ask are you ok," he said.

The director said that he enjoys Salman’s humour and went on to reveal that the relationship between the two exists because Salman doesn’t care about Bhansali’s films, rather, he cares about Bhansali.

Why does Sanjay Leela Bhansali feel fortunate to have Salman Khan as his friend?

The Heeramandi director said that on the professional front, he may have parted with Salman and have not had their moment. But every month they call each other and this is true friendship. Bhansali said that he feels fortunate to have that friend with whom he will have a chat every 6 months but will start from where they left off.

Also read: Heeramandi review: 9 tweets to check before watching Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s drama on Netflix 

Bhansali and Salman collaborated for the first time on the 1996 film Khamoshi: The Musical, which also featured Nana Patekar and Manisha Koirala. The duo later collaborated in 1999 for Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, which also starred Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Ajay Devgn.

Speaking about the nature of friendships in Bollywood where the artists are always busy and moving from one project to the next, the director said that he loves his actors when he is working with them but then they move on and they forget. “As an actor, you are going to the next film the very next day, but as a director, you are sitting at home for six months working on the next one. So, you feel lonely and wonder where did all these people go away? So, you should not take that very seriously but you should not stop loving them,” he said.