Sanjay Leela Bhansali Said His Father Was A ‘Violent’ Alcoholic: ‘Had Seen Him With His Drink At 4:30 AM’

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s father turned to alcohol for solace and became violent and neglectful towards his family.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s father, Navin Bhansali, was a producer who never found success in films. He turned to alcohol for solace and became violent and neglectful towards his family. In an earlier chat on Rendezvous with Simi Garewal, Sanjay Leela Bhansali opened up about how his father’s alcoholism led to his mother taking charge of the house.

“There were financial problems, and things started deteriorating, and he took solace in alcohol,” he said and added, “Ever since I was born, I saw him drink. We saw a lot of violence growing up. We only saw anguish and bitterness against life growing up.”

Sanjay Leela Bhansali mentioned, “He was a violent man. He never whipped us, but that’s how we felt as kids. He was a broken man. I had seen him sitting with his drink at 4:30 in the morning and talking to his dog.”

The filmmaker said that his father was “dominating” and “overpowering” which made him scared as a child. “There were moneylenders who were always at the house. We would be looked down upon at social gatherings like weddings because my father would be drunk,” he said.

Recalling his father’s death, Sanjay shared, “He died of cirrhosis. My mother and him didn’t get along, but in the dying moment, he came out of the state of coma and stretched out his hand to my mother. It was one moment of reaching out and holding, and he was gone. I realized my mother sacrificed 22 years of her life for this one moment.”

In an earlier interview with The Hollywood Reporter India, Bhansali recalled how Devdas was influenced by his father’s alcohol addiction. “So all that cinema that comes out of Devdas is a tribute to that alcohol bottle my father cherished. And then I have every film as a subtext. From that subtext comes the natural expression. It is not, here is a story of a spy who goes here and does this, and then there was action, and there was beautiful dialogue. No, no, no. It is personal cinema,” he had shared.