Tabu was my first and last choice: Madhur Bhandarkar looks back at Chandni Bar

Madhur Bhandarkar marked his directorial debut with Trishakti (1999). However, the film bombed at the box office. It was his second film Chandni Bar (2001) which went proved to be a turning point in his career. As film completes 20 years of its release today, the filmmaker looks back at the time when he visited a dance bar in Mumbai for the first time, an episode which nudged him to helm the project.

“I was uncomfortable and embarrassed when a friend took me to a dance bar as I was worried that someone would recognise me. I began observing these girls draped in flashy chiffon sarees, ghagra cholis and churidars dancing to jarring music. That night before I went to sleep, those visuals began flashing before my eyes,” he recalls.

Chandni Bar was made on a budget of ₹1.5 crore. And he hails its leading lady Tabu for agreeing to do it. “She loved the script. I wrote the story keeping her in my mind. She was my first and last choice. I would’ve been very disappointed if she turned down the film. She was doing commercial films at that point. To play a mother to two children wasn’t easy,” Bhandarkar says.

But releasing the film wasn’t a cake for the filmmaker. He shares, “What we see on OTT today was seen in the film at that time as it was hard-hitting and real; the language was harsh. A lot of prominent people told me that Chandni Bar is a very sleazy and down-market title.”

But things changed overnight as the film went on to win a National Award: “From a nobody, I became known as a filmmaker who makes realistic cinema. When I received the award from late Dr APJ Abdul Kalam saab, I couldn’t believe it. Tabu kept asking me how I’m feeling and I was just speechless.”

Speculations are rife that a sequel to Chandni Bar is in the making for a few years now. Spilling the beans on the same, Bhandarkar shares, “Mumbai bars shut in 2005 and I kept wondering what happened to these women. I’ve been researching on it since 2005. Many of them died by suicide, some went abroad. There’s a lot of pathos and emotions attached to their stories. With Chandni Bar 2.0, I want to revisit that zone. I’m intrigued. I’m craving to tell the story. I have some ideas but haven’t streamlined it yet.”

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