The Politics of Adaptation: Decoding Bhansali’s Cinematic “Gaze”

The transformation of a literary text into a cinematic piece carries numerous connotations. At first glance, one could perceive it as a form of art, collaboration between two unique media linked to the narrative tradition. But the act of adaptation is never innocent; it raises the questions about what is included and what is excluded and the myriad reasons behind it. In Bollywood (the Hindi film industry), the subject of a film is often driven by the commercial possibilities of a project. Working in this industry, director Sanjay Leela Bhansali has a critically acclaimed and commercially successful body of work behind him. Out of his ten directorial ventures, at least seven are films adapted from various fictional and non-fictional literary sources. His inclination towards sex worker narratives is evident by analysing films like Devdas (2002), Saawariya (2007), Gangubai Kathiawadi (2022) and his recent Netflix mini-series Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar (2024). This paper aims to investigate the unique position of sex worker narratives in Hindi cinema and in Bhansali’s filmography, focusing on the disparity between these narratives and their adaptations while also providing a comparison with unconventional independent films. Further, the study examines the concept of “gaze” by evaluating the selected films and offering an alternate viewpoint through the works of female filmmakers such as Leena Yadav and Mira Nair.