After releasing the first look teaser for his upcoming project Heeramandi, filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali spoke up about his last film, Gangubai Kathiawadi.

Sanjay in a conversation with Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos about their upcoming collaboration on Saturday revealed that people told him not to make Gangubai Kathiawadi.

The filmmaker said: "People told me not to make Gangubai. It's a female-centric film, it's a female protagonist. In India, they do not got a female-[led] subject."

He further said: "The box office has never worked. She's playing a sex worker and then there's no hero. All the tick marks you would put to understand the audience and the scenario, I have ticked all the wrong boxes. But it worked. That's the belief."

Alia Bhatt's starrer film Gangubai Kathiawadi was released on February 25, 2022, and became a blockbuster hit last year.

Meanwhile, Sanjay is gearing up to release his period drama Heeramandi on Netflix and it marks as his first OTT debut. 

The star cast of the series includes Sonakshi Sinha, Manisha Koirala, Richa Chadha, Aditi Rao Hydari, Sanjeeda Shaikh, and Sharmin Segal. The series is expected to release on a streaming platform sometime this year.