Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar marked director Sanjay Leela Bhansali's OTT debut. The Netflix show premiered on May 1. Recently, Jason Shah, who portrays the role of British officer Cartwright in the series, opened up about a scene where he slaps Manisha Koirala's character Mallikajaan. During a chat with Filmibeat OTT, the actor was asked if he felt awkward during that scene. Jason responded, “There was. I even told the fight master. Because he was like, ‘Aise maro [Hit her like this]'. And I was like, ‘Main agar aise maara aur laga usko [If I hit her like this and she gets hurt then what] so I would obviously feel very bad.' So, I was very careful. I was watching my actions. In one shot, I even flicked her nose ring off. It got that close. And that's what I was telling the fight master that, ‘I am doing something. But if she is not in that coordination, I might end up hurting her. And obviously, she is an older woman. So, I had to take care. That is my responsibility.' But it was an intense scene.”
Jason Shah also recounted his interaction with director Sanjay Leela Bhansali regarding the slap scene. He shared, “It was fun because, actually, Sanjay [Leela Bhansali] asked me about a couple of things in that scene. What would you like to do and stuff like that… So, we actually gave each other a few things.”
For Manisha Koirala, Jason Shah said, “That scene was brilliant. She, I think, overall has been someone that I was like ‘wow.' She really went over and beyond what I thought or imagined.”
“I honestly have not seen too much of her [Manisha Koirala] work. But I saw that she was very in-depth in her character. And, we did not share too many words either on set. She was very quiet and I respect that. I am very chatty. I am too chatty sometimes. But, I respect when someone wants that space. I completely left her. I started to realise that she had a lot of character inside of her. She would do natural things that looked great," Jason Shah added.
Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar also features Sonakshi Sinha, Aditi Rao Hydari, Sanjeeda Shaikh, Sharmin Segal, and Richa Chadha.