Farida Jalal has been in the movies since the 1960s and when she was cast in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Netflix series Heeramandi, her fans felt like her comeback was long overdue. Farida played the role of Qudsia Begum on the show and shared that she was in awe of Bhansali’s world when she worked on the series. She shared that when the director narrated her first scene, she immediately knew that she wouldn’t be comfortable performing it in the way he had pictured, and so she refused him on the spot.
In a chat with Galatta India, Farida shared, “He said the first shot is you are sitting with a group of nawaabzaadis all over, having a nice party, your son has just come back from abroad and you have a glass of wine in one hand and a cigarette in the other. I froze. Main thandi pad gayi.” Farida said that as soon as she heard it, she knew she wouldn’t be able to do it as this made her uncomfortable.
“(I said) ‘Sir, I have never done this.’ There have been instances in my life in which such kind of roles did come my way and I have always said no. I was not comfortable so I said, ‘Sir, I will not hold a cigarette. I will look false.’ He didn’t say a word to me. What a great man! He didn’t even speak about it after that meeting. He just did away with it. I was very tensed. He understood that I am not comfortable,” she recalled.
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Farida Jalal said that she was very happy with what she saw on screen and felt that if her character was also drinking and smoking, then there wouldn’t be much distinction between her and the characters who were shown to be living in Heeramandi. “I really liked what I saw. I am sure he felt the same. He must have also felt that ‘good, we didn’t go that way’. I would have been very uncomfortable because I don’t do those things,” she said.
The actor praised him further and said, “He creates that world. We all begin to believe in it. He took us into that era. We don’t know if it was real or fictional but I believed everything I saw. I loved it. I went with the flow.”
The second season of Netflix’s Heeramandi was announced soon after the first season released in May 2024. But there have not been any follow up announcements since then. Bhansali is currently working on his next feature film Love and War starring Alia Bhatt, Ranbir Kapoor and Vicky Kaushal.