Bhansali lived a street away from Kamathipura for 30 years of his life and the area’s residents left a profound impression on him. “These women would always be around and so they were somewhere a part of my growing up years,” Bhansali told Variety. “This will be my most personal work, a personal film that you make once in your life or twice in your life when you feel you’re saying a lot about yourself.”
Bhansali’s oeuvre includes several films featuring strong women characters, including “Devdas” (2002), which premiered at Cannes and earned a BAFTA nomination, “Black” (2005) and “Padmaavat” (2018). “The women who are weak, who are lost in this big bad world — this is a woman who’s fought for them,” said Bhansali about Gangubai. “It’s about empowering all these women and saying whatever you are, accept what you are. And I like that thought a lot where she says: ‘If you’re a teacher or you’re a professor or you’re a doctor or engineer, then I’m a prostitute. And accept me the way I am, accept my profession, because this profession is not going anywhere. We are the fringe of society but we want to be accepted in society, because society will not be able to function without prostitution, it will always be there'”
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