Bhansali's 'Devdas' Left Mumbai Brides Waiting At Mandap, Hundred Of Weddings Were Postponed

It’s not every day that a Bollywood film disrupts weddings in Mumbai, but when it comes to Sanjay Leela Bhansali, nothing seems impossible. The ace filmmaker, renowned for his grand period dramas, opulent musical productions, and larger-than-life sets, once organised a project so massive that it allegedly caused a citywide shortage of power generators. As a result, several weddings had to be postponed or even cancelled altogether. The film behind this unusual chaos was the iconic Shah Rukh Khan-starrer, Devdas.

How SLB’s Devdas led to power generator shortage across Mumbai

In a recent chat with Friday Talkies, Devdas cinematographer, Binod Pradhan spilt the tea on just how massive the production was. The 2002 film, adapted from Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s 1917 novel, starred Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, and Madhuri Dixit. It was a grand spectacle with opulent sets, breathtaking costumes and lighting. Pradhan revealed how the perfectionist in Bhansali led him to only craft three to four shots per day. He shared:

“Honestly, I didn’t realise the sets were going to be so big. In fact, we weren’t in a hurry to shoot either. That is, in other films, we used to can 15-20 shots a day, sometimes even 40, and here in Devdas, we were only doing 3-4.”

Pradhan explained how lighting Paro’s (Aishwarya Rai’s) glass-filled house and Chandramukhi’s (Madhuri Dixit’s) kilometre-long kotha required an enormous amount of power. The cinematographer recalled:

“One of the main reasons for the delay was in getting the lighting right. For instance, Paro’s house was filled with glass. It isn’t easy to light such a set… We had to devise techniques to achieve the right lighting, and it was the same in Chandramukhi’s place too. It was a kilometre-long set… We took a whole round of this set, wondering how we were going to film the scenes here.”

Further, Pradhan recounted how they had to use an extraordinary number of generators to light up the lavish sets. The scale was so large that it caused an electricity shortage across Mumbai. Apparently, wedding planners and families scrambling to find backup power sources had to postpone ceremonies because Bhansali’s Devdas had monopolised the city’s generator supply. Pradhan was quoted as saying:

“There was a time when it was said that marriages in Mumbai had to be stopped or rescheduled because we had used up all the generators in the city. It was a huge area, and I had to use a lot of generators to light the place up. If there is a director who backs you, you can give your best.”

Devdas was the most expensive Indian film of its time

Sanjay Leela Bhansali was determined to bring his grand vision for Devdas to life, refusing to cut corners even when financial constraints delayed production. The film was made on a staggering budget of Rs. 50 crore, making it the most expensive Indian film of its time. Despite the setbacks, Devdas premiered at Cannes in 2002, earned Rs. 168 crore worldwide, and became a blockbuster, cementing its place as a timeless Bollywood classic.

What are your views on Bhansali’s Devdas shoot leading to marriages being postponed across Mumbai?

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