Sanjay Leela Bhansali plays with fire for Padmavati’s sake

Ever since the fire on the sets of Black, Sanjay Leela Bhansali had decided to stay away from incendiary scenes. In fact, long before the Black fire, which destroyed property worth crores, there was another fire incident involving SLB, when Bhumika Chawla’s veil caught fire while auditioning for Devdas. 

Having avoided fire scenes for so long, it seems there’s no getting away from it anymore for Bhansali. In Padmavati, the entire climax is fire-dominated. 

Says a source, “Bhansali had to shoot Rani Padmavati’s self-immolation sequence, where she had to plunge into a fire with hundreds of her disciples, rather than succumbing to the invader, Allaudin Khilji’s advances. The sequence required widespread use of flames. And given his past mishaps with fire, Bhansali was understandably petrified that an accident would occur.”

Deepika, we hear, gave the director a lot of strength to shoot the dangerous sequence. “She was very brave. All the safety measures in place, she plunged into the sequence. The climax of Padmavati will be remembered for a long, long time,” says the source.