Sanjay Leela Bhansali is “absolutely fine,” says official statement after heart attack rumours

Filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali is “absolutely fine,” his team confirmed, putting to rest speculation about his health that surfaced earlier in the day. Reports had claimed that the director was hospitalised in Mumbai after allegedly suffering a heart attack on his 63rd birthday. The claims circulated widely on social media before being addressed by an official statement from his production banner, Bhansali Productions. “Mr. Sanjay Leela Bhansali is doing absolutely fine. He has gone in for a routine medical check-up and there is no cause for concern. We sincerely appreciate the love, care, and concern shown by everyone. Thank you for your continued support and warm wishes,” the statement read. The clarification comes after unverified posts suggested that the filmmaker had been rushed to a hospital following discomfort. However, his team has categorically denied the reports, confirming that the visit was part of a regular health check. Speaking of the professional front, Bhansali i...

‘It’s like Game of Thrones!’ The return of India’s ancient superhero fantasy epic

In the 1980s, Peter Brook’s adaptation of The Mahabharata enchanted audiences on stage and screen. As Brook’s son presents a restored print at the Venice film festival, he and his team discuss the work’s extraordinary journey

When Antonin Stahly was nine years old, his mother took him to the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris to see a production of the ancient Indian epic The Mahabharata, which translates loosely as “the great story of mankind”. More than 20 actors from 16 countries performed on a stage steeped in red earth and scarred by a water-filled trench; fire also played a leading role. Directed by Peter Brook, whom the RSC founder Peter Hall called “the greatest innovator of his generation”, and adapted by Luis Buñuel’s former co-writer Jean-Claude Carrière, this spectacular Mahabharata weighed in at nine hours, plus intervals. Even at that length, it represented a massive compression of its source text, which runs to 1.8m words. Brook and Carrière’s version has been likened to summarising the Bible in 40 minutes.

Audiences could devour The Mahabharata in three parts over successive evenings or as an all-day weekend marathon; in some outdoor venues, such as the limestone quarry in Avignon where the production premiered in 1985, it began at dusk and climaxed just as the dawn sun lit up the sky. Stahly saw it in a single noon-to-midnight sitting. “It was like a superhero fantasy,” he says, still sounding awestruck. “It had Bhima, the strongest man on Earth, and Bhishma, who has the power to live for ever. Arjuna was the best warrior. And then there were all the gods. It was amazing for me, because I’m half Indian, but I wasn’t brought up in an Indian context.”

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