SLB isn’t worried about Dippy-Ranveer tension

Director Sanjay Leela Bhansali is unaffected by the rough patch that his leading duo is going through in their relationship

Speculations that Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh’s relationship is going through a rough patch have been making the rounds in B-town. The one person who should probably worry the most is Sanjay Leela Bhansali, whose magnum opus Padmavati will feature the couple as the lead pair. However, the filmmaker seems to be least bothered by the turn of events.

This comes as a surprise, since many films have been shelved because of bad blood between the leading actors. K Asif ’s Mughal-e-Azam, for instance took seven years to complete after Dilip Kumar and Madhubala had a fallout and, more recently, Imtiaz Ali also had a lot to worry when Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor called off their relationship on the eve of the release of Jab We Met.

So why is Bhansali so blasé about the situation? Says a source close to the project, “Ranveer and Deepika’s personal equation makes no difference to Padmavati because the two don’t have a single scene to shoot together in the entire script. The film, where Ranveer plays Allauddin Khalji who coveted the wife of the Rajasthani King, is about longing, not fulfilment. As such, all of Deepika’s scenes are with Shahid Kapoor who plays her husband.”

An interesting fact about SLB’s films is that many of his leading actors seem to fall in love during the shoot. This holds true for Khamoshi: The Musical, where Nana Patekar fell in love with Manisha Koirala, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, which sparked an affair between Salman Khan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Goliyon Ki Raas Leela Ramleela that allegedly brought together the Padmavati duo together.

“So much love in my cinema and on my sets. But none in my own life,” jokes Bhansali, when this is pointed out to him. Here’s hoping the good vibes help the DeepikaRanveer equation!