‘Even if he offers ₹100 cr, won’t work with him’: Devdas composer on fallout with Sanjay Leela Bhansali

Mumbai: Renowned music composer Ismail Darbar has stated in a recent interview that even if filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali offered him ₹100 crore to compose music for his films again, he would firmly refuse.

Darbar told Vickey Lalwani, “Today, if Sanjay comes and says to me, ‘Please do the music for my film, I’ll give you ₹100 crore,’ I’ll tell him, ‘Pehli fursat mein chale jaa yahan se’ (leave immediately).”

The two artists had a celebrated creative partnership, with Darbar composing the music for Bhansali’s critically acclaimed films Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999) and Devdas (2002). Both films earned immense praise, with Darbar’s music considered the backbone of their success.

However, their collaboration ended after Devdas, with Darbar pointing to a fallout during the making of Bhansali’s long-delayed project Heeramandi. Darbar recalled the incident that caused a rift: “A news report highlighted my music as the ‘backbone’ of the project. Sanjay thought I planted the article myself. He called me into his office and asked, ‘Ismail, how could you say that?’ After that, he said, ‘Alright, let it go.’ After that I understood that ‘let it go’ really meant that sooner or later, he would put me in a position where I would leave Heeramandi myself. I left before that could happen.”

Although Heeramandi was eventually released as a Netflix India Original with Bhansali himself composing the music, tensions had escalated. Darbar said, “He understood – when the backbone is Ismail Darbar: I was the backbone in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. I was the backbone in Devdas, too. I’m not the one saying this – his PR said it, it was on the front pages. So I had seen his ego. Fear had crept in that I work so hard and he takes the credit.”

Darbar further alleged that Bhansali instructed his PR team not to arrange interviews for him. The two were expected to collaborate on Guzaarish (2010), but Bhansali ended up composing the music himself.

He also revealed that Bhansali had offered him the music for Bajirao Mastani during its early phase in 2005, but he declined to work on it, choosing instead to compose for Kisna (2005). The film was released a decade later with Bhansali as composer.