How The Song Deewani Mastani From Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Bajirao Mastani Was Shot

The Deewani Mastani sequence in Bajirao Mastani is one of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's most memorable dance sequences. It features Deepika Padukone's Mastani performing in the golden lit Aaina Mahal (hall of mirrors) while Ranveer Singh's Bajirao looks on, infatuated. Cinematographer Sudeep Chatterjee tells us about how he shot this song:

On Shooting With Mirrors

We had a nice trick. If you revisit and you notice, you'll see that they're all small mirrors. And these small mirrors were on small movable levers. And we would keep rotating the levers as per our convenience.

On Not Fighting The Reflection

Everyone tries to hide lights from the mirror. Here I was not trying to do that. You actually see the lights, but because they're on broken mirrors, you don't realize.

On Building A Light Source

My light source was largely made of mirchi lights. I had made huge skimmers – they're big metal frames where you usually tie a cloth and use it for bouncing light or as a diffusion material. We used the skimmer frames to make a network of mirchi lights. I had them behind the camera on moveable pulleys. On shots we would keep moving them up and down. So you get these little glitters which move up and down.