Deepika-Abhi to be Amrita-Sahir in Bhansali film
Sanjay Leela Bhansali, who is gearing up for the release of his muchhyped historical movie Padmavati, is now planning to come up with a film on the love relationship of Amrita Pritam, the late doyenne of Punjabi literature, and legendary film lyricist Sahir Ludhianvi.
He has reportedly roped in Deepika Padukone, who is essaying the lead role in Padmavati, to play Amrita and Abhishek Bachchan as Sahir. The film will be Deepika’s fourth venture with Bhansali.
A report by The Quint quoted a source as saying, “Abhishek has begun preparing for his role . He will begin rigorous interaction with Sanjay Bhansali after Padmavati release. But his groundwork on Sahir has begun in right earnest. He is regularly listening to the immortal repertoire of Sahir’s lyrics from Guru Dutt’s Pyasa to Yash Chopra’s Trishul.”
“Abhishek’s father, Amitabh Bachchan, had the good fortune to interact with Sahir when he worked in Kabhi Kabhie and Trishul. So Bachchan Saab is able to provide a plenty of invaluable inputs to Abhishek’s preparation,” the source added.
Earlier, Bhansali was in talks with Shah Rukh Khan for Sahir’s role. “It (the project) was in Red Chilles (before), then Bhansali took it over. Jasneet is the writer. I really liked the story but we have not confirmed it. Sanjay is supposed to meet me now. I think I’ll meet him after Raees, if he is free from Padmavati. He has a couple of stories and one of them is Sahir Ludhianvi. I heard it two years ago when it wasn’t with Sanjay,” SRK had said before the release of Raees.
NO PERMISSION FROM FAMILY YET
Meanwhile, the family of Amrita Pritam claimed that the producers of the upcoming movie have so far not secured any permission from them regarding the project.
Amrita’s 32-year-old grandson Aman Kwatra, a Delhibased researcher in international relations, said, “So far, they have not got our permission in this regard.”
Over three years ago, the family had threatened to move court and even sent a legal notice to another producer who had planned a similar movie, saying it had refused to approve the project even at the inception stage. Film’s producer Ashi Dua and director Jasmeet Reen had then approached Irrfan Khan and Priyanka Chopra for the roles. The movie has not seen the light of the day.
ON THE RELATIONSHIP
Amrita was married to Pritam Singh, a cloth merchant based in Lahore, at a very young age. Trapped in a loveless marriage, she came in touch with Sahir and fell in love with him. The family had shifted to Delhi after Partition. Amrita and Sahir had a platonic relationship that went on for years even as Amrita kept living in Delhi and Sahir — an alumnus of Government College, Ludhiana — was based in tinsel town Mumbai.
Their romance would take place over long distances as they wrote letters to each other full of endearments.
From the letters to her memoirs, Rasidi Ticket, Amrita made her love for Sahir very clear but he was not so forthcoming. While he accepted to his mother that Amrita “aapki bahu ban sakti thi”, according to his biographer, he never committed to Amrita.
Balwant Gargi, however, once wrote that Sahir had an inferiority complex as he considered himself ugly as compared to beautiful Amrita.
Though Imroz, an artist, had meanwhile come into Amrita’s life, she had soft corner for Sahir till he passed away in 1980. However, Imroz and Amrita stayed as live-in partners till the latter passed away on October 31, 2005.