Jason Shah, who recently appeared in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar’, opened up about his experience during the filming of the Netflix series. The actor portrayed the role of an antagonist, British officer Alastair Cartwright, in the historical web series. In an interview with NDTV, Jason said that the atmosphere on set was fraught with 'stress'. He also added that there was a lack of 'simple niceties' during the filming.
Jason Shah talks about working on the sets of Heeramandi
When the actor was asked if there was any discrimination among actors on the Heeramandi set, Jason said, “I found it (the set) to be lacking in the simple niceties of human nature. I felt like there were places where just 'Hi Jason, this is this person, the director you will be working with today' (could have been said). I was not introduced to many people over there, which I found very odd. I found it a little confusing in some ways.”
"I started thinking, I am the villain (on the show), so maybe they want the villain to be angry and disconnected from everybody. But me being connected to a human being on set never really boils over to my character onscreen. I felt a little bit out of place in some places, but I guess you keep on going with the flow of things and pick it up from wherever," he added.
Jason Shah recalls his first meeting with Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Jason Shah also recounted his first encounter with filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali. He said, "I was sitting inside one of the rooms in his office. I had the script in my hand, and that's when he came in and started nonchalantly looking through a cupboard. He then looked over and said a very silent, ‘Hi.' It wasn't an introduction of sorts. I realised later that he had come to see me to check if the guy that he chose would be able to carry it off.”
Sanjay Leela Bhansali's debut web series ‘Heeramandi’ released on Netflix on May 1. The period drama stars Manisha Koirala, Aditi Rao Hydari, Sanjeeda Sheikh, Richa Chadha, Sonakshi Sinha, Fardeen Khan, Taha Shah, Shekhar Suman, Adhyayan Suman, Farida Jalal, and Indresh Malik.