EXCLUSIVE: Shantanu Maheshwari opens up about Alia Bhatt facing criticism for Gangubai Kathiawadi

Shantanu Maheshwari marked his Bollywood debut this year with the Alia Bhatt starrer Gangubai Kathiawadi which was directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. As the teaser of Gangubai Kathiwadi was dropped, Alia Bhatt was faced with a lot of criticism for being ‘too young’ for the role. But not many knew back then that the movie shows Gangubai from the age of 16 to her 30s. In an exclusive chat with Bollywood Bubble, Shantanu Maheshwari opened up about the backlash and said that even his friends would get sceptical about Alia playing the role.

Shantanu told Bollywood Bubble, “When the teaser came out, even a few of my friends- people I know were talking about and even I was trying to convince them because I have seen the way she has performed. She was so effortless and absolutely believable that she is Gangubai in whatever I have seen and whatever I have shot with her.”

The actor further added, “I was trying to convince everyone that Alia is the one no matter what you say. Her journey is in this age group, so how can you say that she should be older. Half the people don’t even know what is the age group, they just wanted to criticise. When I met Alia, I also asked her, ‘Will you guys be doing prosthetics or something.’ So she said ‘No’. But it is ok people are talking about it, that is also ok, a buzz is maintained.”

 

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Earlier in an exclusive chat, Alia Bhatt had opened up about people calling her too young for Gangubai , she said, “I feel like sometimes people are too quick to judge and yes, I don’t blame those who think that I’m not the obvious choice I think that’s what happened, people were like ‘oh but don’t you think this one is more suitable’ and there’s a certain vision or what they’ve done so yes there is an obvious choice for this film but I would only say one thing and that’s what I felt even at that time is that ok you can question me but you can’t question a maker (Sanjay Leela Bhansali) who’s been working for 25 years. He knows who he wants for his movie so I was just being patient, I was like ‘Chalo let the film release now.’ I mean, whatever poster, teaser, trailer that’s just a small and lead-in eventually it’s the film that does what it needs to do, but of course, I want people to want to come and watch the film.”

Check out the full conversation with Shantanu Maheshwari below:

Also Read: EXCLUSIVE: Shantanu Maheshwari talks about bagging Gangubai Kathiawadi, says, ‘I was prepared to be rejected’