Jason Shah says his character in Heeramandi could've been ‘worked on more’
In a recent interview, actor Jason Shah who played Alastair Cartwright in Heeramandi, made some interesting revelations.
Actor Jason Shah made some interesting revelations in a recent interview about director Sanjay Leela Bhansali. On the Inside The Mind With Rushabh podcast, he claimed that the director did not even helm most scenes featuring his character, British police officer Alastair Cartwright, in what Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos called the ‘biggest project’. (Also Read: Heeramandi actor Jason Shah says set of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's show 'lacked simple niceties': I felt out of place)
‘He wasn’t directing that much’
Jason stated that because it was Sanjay’s first time making a web series, the director had a lot on his plate and was relying on his team to film some of the scenes with actors other than the core cast. He said, “I think web (series) and film are a little bit different because web is very stretched; you have a lot of episodes to make. It took him two-and-a-half years to make this. He also wasn’t directing that much; I had other directors with me. I felt like we could’ve worked on it (his character) a little bit more. A lot more colour could’ve come out; it had the capacity.”
He also claimed that his character, who was one of the series’ major villains, could’ve been fleshed out much better than it was. Jason added that he didn’t want to point this out much because he didn’t want to be labelled a ‘problem-maker’.
He said, “I’ve played a lot of these British officers, I’ve sat on sets where there’s a lot of talk about history. There are some places where I felt my character could’ve made strong choices. Look at Ben Kingsley’s Gandhi there they show how far racism can go. I said enough; I would’ve become a problem-maker if I said more.”
About Heeramandi
Heeramandi is Sanjay’s foray into OTT, with the series releasing on Netflix in May. The lead roles were played by Manisha Koirala, Sonakshi Sinha, Aditi Rao Hydari, Richa Chadha, Sanjeeda Sheikh, Sharmin Segal Mehta, and Taha Shah Badussha. Set in the 1940s, Heeramandi explored the lives of tawaifs in the red-light district of Heera Mandi in Lahore during the Indian independence movement against the British Raj. A second season has been greenlit.