Music composer Ismail Darbar has broken his silence on his bitter fallout with filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali, describing him as “egoistic”. He also shared that he wouldn’t work with Bhansali again, not even if he was offered ₹100 crore.

Ismail Darbar on why he won’t work with Bhansali

Darbar spoke about working with Bhansali during an interview with Vickey Lalwani on his YouTube channel. He worked with Bhansali on Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam.

The working dynamic shifted after a media article praised Darbar’s music as the “backbone” of Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar. Though the report acknowledged the star cast, it positioned the music as the show’s strongest element. After reading it, Bhansali, as the reports claim, believed that Darbar had planted the story, which led to a rift between them.

Talking about it, Darbar said, “I said, ‘Look, if I have to break the news, I won’t be scared of you; I’ll say it outright that yes, I said it…’ I still don’t know who that man was, but he put that news out and Sanjay found out. He called me into his office and asked, ‘Ismail, how could you say that?’ After that he said, ‘Alright, let it go.’ After that I understood that ‘let it go’ really meant that sooner or later he would put me in a position where I would leave Heeramandi myself. I left before that could happen.”

He was asked whether Bhansali tried to call him back. To this, Darbar shared, “Why would he? He understood – when the backbone is Ismail Darbar: I was the backbone in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam… I was the backbone in Devdas too. I’m not the one saying this – his PR said it, it was on the front pages. So I had seen his ego. Fear had crept in that I work so hard and he takes the credit.”

Darbar also mentioned he was scheduled to collaborate with Bhansali on Guzaarish, but the arguments they had during Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam had already escalated during Devdas. Furthermore, he claimed that Bhansali even instructed the PR teams not to take Darbar’s interviews.

Darbar shared that as of today, he and Bhansali have had a 100% fallout, adding, “Today, if Sanjay comes and says to me, ‘Please do the music for my film, I’ll give you ₹100 crore,’ I’ll tell him, ‘Pehli fursat mein chale jaa yahan se.’ (Please leave now).”

More about Darbar and Bhansali’s fallout

In 2014, it was reported that Bhansali and Darbar fixed their fallout after the latter chose Subhash Ghai’s Kisna instead of Bhansali’s Bajirao Mastani in 2005. “Sanjay is my godfather. When no one could understand my music, he was the one who did. All issues have been resolved, but they might return whenever we work together … our differences are purely on a creative level and not personal,” he said. However, it seems things have taken a turn for the worse now. Darbar worked with Bhansali on Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Devdas.