As the waves crash outside the crowded hall in Juhu’s Sun-n-Sand, the stars of Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster 3 shuffle between reporters and cameras. But the absence of Sanjay Dutt – whose face looms large in the posters and who has a song, Baba Theme , dedicated to him in the film – is conspicuous.
Drawing attention away from this, the voices of the two leading ladies, Mahie Gill and Chitrangada Singh crooning Lata Mangeshkar’s classic Lag Ja Gale during an interview, with Jimmy Shergill swaying to their tune, brings the room’s noisy chatter to a silent stop.
Sung by Jonita Gandhi for the film, this rendition introduces us to the women of director Tigmanshu Dhulia’s anarchic universe.
Set in modern-day Uttar Pradesh, the Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster series follows the tale of erstwhile royal Aditya Pratap Singh and his wife Madhavi Devi, played by Shergill and Gill – who are reprising their roles again – and how they fend off contenders for the throne. The series is an extended and amped-up homage to the 1962 classic Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam , directed by Abrar Alvi.
“Biwi has become much more powerful,” shares Shergill, adding that the third part starts off a few years after the events of the second. “Saheb has been in prison for that much time. He’s trying his best to come out, but all these forces, and the biwi, are making sure that he does not. Because he’ll be a threat to everything.”
“It’s getting bloodier and thicker,” says Singh with a grin. A new addition to this world, along with Dutt who plays the gangster but is a royal himself, Singh’s character is a courtesan whose family has served Dutt’s in the film. “I play Suhani, a girl from Rajasthan,” explains Singh, “and she has studied music. But she is in love with Sanju’s character in the film. It is unrequited love, so there is pain there, [but] this man is the end of her dream.”
The fact that the 2011 Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster unspooled into a labyrinthine series was unexpected. Gill enacts that Dhulia asked her over a phone call, “ ’Mahie kare ye film?’ (Let’s do this film?)” to which she excitedly agreed. “ Sochna nahin padta (You don’t have to think),” she says about returning to the franchise.
“We made the first one just as friends going to a place for 25 days, excited about a project,” reminisces Shergill. The three actors start chatting about how the scheming in the plot heightens the intrigue with each film, and soon the conversation veers towards both saheb and biwi urging Suhani to catch up on the second part, which features Irrfan Khan and Soha Ali Khan in leading roles. Shergill says, “Watch both together,” before Gill interjects with, “But she has seen the first.” “ Aapko bahut maza aayega (you’ll really enjoy it)” he presses.
One wonders if adding a celebrity actor like Dutt to the mix changed the experience of the set Shergill and Gill had grown familiar with over the years. The actors don’t think so, and Singh says, “He doesn’t carry [airs] at all.” Gill adds: “[He’s a] very simple person.”
It’ll be interesting to see if Rajkumar Hirani’s blockbuster biopic on Dutt will affect the reception of Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster 3 . Regardless, Gill says “ Mein fourth part ke liye bhi wait kar rahi hoon [I’m even waiting for the fourth part].”
