Shah Rukh Khan's Devdas Producer Was Arrested, Film Was A 'Nightmare': Abu Jani

Shah Rukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit and Aishwarya Rai’s Devdas is among their most noted films. Directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, the film became a sensational hit and remains a beloved favourite among fans today. However, for designers Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla, the film was a nightmare. They recently appeared on the Namrata Zakaria Show on YouTube and recalled designing the costumes for the film.

Abu recalled and said, “When I started working in the industry, it was very unprofessional. Payments were late; the schedules were horrible. The hero was the central character, and you had to be ready with the costume for the next sequence the moment they were done shooting. It got much better with time, but still, working on Devdas was a nightmare.”

Sandeep said, “For me, Sanjay Leela Bhansali is a genius. The beauty is that he gave me and Abu the utmost respect, and he gave us a free hand to create whatever we wanted for Madhuri, Jackie and Shah Rukh. Fortunately for us, we had got the script bound, and we had already created all the clothes, but unfortunately, his producer went to jail in the middle of the film.”

This producer is Bharat Shah, who was arrested in 2001 for his alleged links to the underworld. Sandeep added, “As a result of what happened, it was a nightmare getting the money for our work. We were still in the middle of creating some garments; for example, the ‘Dola Re’ sequence was shot much later. Abu created that sketch, and some beautiful chikan outfits were done at the last minute, but no regrets because it got a national award.”

In an earlier interview shared by Wild Films India, Sanjay Leela Bhansali said, “People said this film is jinxed, this film brings bad vibes, you should shut down this film, this will be in losses. The set caught fire, Bharat bhai (Shah) was also in trouble, I was in a problem, Shah Rukh Khan was in a problem.”

“We were all suffering. You don’t get anything in life easily. You have to work hard. Maybe it was bad timing, maybe it was our test that for how long can we sustain our passion,” the director said. His patience and efforts paid off, and Devdas became a global success.