Sanjay Leela Bhansali shares how Ranbir Kapoor was involved in 9-year-old Alia Bhatt's audition for 'Black'

Director Sanjay Leela Bhansali is basking in the success of his recently released film, 'Gangubai Kathiawadi' starring actress Alia Bhatt in the lead role of a brothel madam turned mafia queen who later becomes a social warrior fighting for the rights of sex workers and the legalisation of prostitution. 

While it has been reported that Alia wasn't the first choice for the film, it seems like she was always destined to Gangubai. 

Speaking about his karmic connection with Alia Bhatt, director Sanjay Leela Bhansali recently opened up about 'saving' the nine-year-old Alia who he had met for an audition on the sets of his film 'Black', for a film. 

In his interview with Film Companion, Sanjay said, "I saw a very powerful person walking into my house when she was nine years old. I was sitting by the dining table and my main door is right in front, so, I see this kid walk in with her mother. And her eyes reached me. She had come to audition for Black, for the small girl's role. Amita Sehgal (casting director) had gotten her and I told her 'Amita...not her. I want to save her for a film. And I think this is a big heroine and a big star who has walked in'. She was that (indicates with his hand) small, tiny built, curly and baby hair, something very special about her. And her eyes, she kept looking at me and I kept looking at her and there's something...I said 'here's somebody from some karmic connection I have with this girl'."

Opening up about how Alia passed his little test or audition as you may want to call it with flying colours, Sanjay added, "Then we went inside the room and I said Soni (Razdan) now you sit, and I said (to Alia) now you dance on Dola Re Dola. I wanted to see how much of a heroine she had in her. How much was she comfortable with the mainstream. At that age you're not but today's kids are very well-versed with dance moves or being a heroine etc. She came out with flying colours." 

READ: From 'Black' to 'Gangubai Kathiawadi': Alia Bhatt's journey to finally becoming Sanjay Leela Bhansali's heroine

During the chat with Film Companion, Sanjay also talked about Alia and Ranbir's meet-up at the time she had come for the audition. He continued, "Then I made her sit, dressed her up. Then I said, Ranbir (Kapoor), just sit next to her, because Ranbir was assisting me on Black that time. Okay so I said now let's take some pictures and now put your head on his shoulder. She said 'no'. She was feeling shy of it. So, I looked at Soni and said 'what is this?' She said, 'she's shy'. And am talking to Soni and suddenly I saw her head go onto his shoulder. I have that picture of the two of them which I sent her (Alia) on her last birthday. It was a little black and white copy saved, stored, scratched and I asked her 'do you remember this moment?'" 

As Sanjay continued, he said, "Coming back, Inshallah didn't happen, then I realized that I had blocked her dates. I had blocked a lot of her time and she was very excited about working with me. She wanted to experience filmmaking being a part of my films. So, I said let's do Gangubai."

And that is how Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Alia Bhatt finally collaborated for the first time together. 

Earlier, during the press conference in Berlin, Alia had talked about her audition that she gave 17 years ago for 'Black', and called Mr Bhansali her 'biggest inspiration'. The actress confessed that she wanted to work with him for a long time.

In the video that went viral, Alia is heard saying, "I wanted to be directed by him ever since I was 9-years-old. That's when I first walked into his house to audition for another film he was making at that time."
During the press conference, the actress recalled her audition and said that she was ‘terrible’ and that is why her audition did not go well. However, Mr Bhansali looked into her eyes and said ‘she is going to be a heroine, a big actor someday.’ She said, “he saw that fire in my eyes when I was 9 years old. I remember very clearly from that time onwards, my one-point focus became one day I have to be directed by him."

Before this, in an Instagram live with Shreya Ghosal, the actress had narrated the same story. She had said Sanjay told her, "Ye child actor nahi hai. Ye heroine hai (She is not a child actor. She is a heroine)" when she had come to him to audition for 'Black'.