It took Sanjay two-and-a-half years to make this: Jason

I felt my character could have made strong choices: Jason

I would’ve become a problem-maker if I said more: Jason

Actor Jason Shah who played the role of the British police officer Alastair Cartwright in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s directorial ‘Heeramandi’ which released on Netflix talked about his experience on the sets. He stated that Sanjay took a backseat and let other directors handle portions featuring him in the web series. “I think web and film are a little bit different because web is very stretched; you have a lot of episodes to make. It took him two-and-a-half years to make this. He also wasn’t directing that much; I had other directors with me. I felt like we could’ve worked on it a little bit more. A lot more colour could’ve come out; it had the capacity,” Jason said in the ‘Inside The Mind With Rushabh’ podcast. 

Also Read: Sanjay Leela Bhansali hasn’t made a documentary on Heeramandi: Shekhar Suman

Jason expressed that there was a scope for the character to have more facets to his personality. He drew references from classic films featuring British cops serving in colonial India such as ‘Gandhi’. “I’ve played a lot of these British officers, I’ve sat on sets where there’s a lot of talk about history. There are some places where I felt my character could have made strong choices. Look at Ben Kingsley’s Gandhi there they show how far racism can go. I said enough; I would’ve become a problem-maker if I said more,” Jason added.