There are filmmakers who chase spectacle and grandeur. And then there is Madhur Bhandarkar, who for over two decades has pursued something far less ornamental and far more unsettling: truth. His cinema moves through dimly lit corridors where glamour recedes, shadows dominate, and uncomfortable realities quietly surface. From Chandni Bar and Page 3 to Corporate and Fashion, Bhandarkar has consistently looked behind the shimmer of fame to expose its human cost. With The Wives, he returns to the territory that earned him a National Award—private lives beneath public images, the unspoken behind Bollywood’s carefully staged spectacle.
Starring Mouni Roy, Sonali Kulkarni, and Regina Cassandra, the film brings together actors from different regions. But Bhandarkar is clear about its scope. “It basically comprises the world of Bollywood wives. It’s about the trials and tribulations of their life. It’s from my point of view—an inside view, inside the world of the star wives,” he says.
That instinct—to probe the hidden mechanics of show business—has long defined his work. Across his career, Bhandarkar has maintained that the audience, not stars or filmmakers, is the real hero. “Without the audience, we are nobody. The audience is the one who takes you and makes you a star, a superstar. Whatever love the audience has given Madhur Bhandarkar’s films in the last 25 years, that is important for me,” he says.
That grounding, perhaps, explains his distance from industry cliques. “I don’t belong to any group. I’m an independent filmmaker. I make the film the way I want. If I like a subject, I make a film; if I don’t like a subject, I take a leave, I travel, I go on a spiritual journey, I meet people, I work on a script.”
The shift towards OTT platforms has altered the landscape even for a theatrically rooted filmmaker like him. “Now, films have become an expensive journey for cinegoers,” Bhandarkar says. Content-driven filmmakers, he notes, were especially affected. “Filmmakers who make niche cinema have definitely been affected.” Still, he insists scale cannot mask weak storytelling. “If the content is bad, people won’t watch the film.” His OTT releases during the pandemic—India Lockdown and Babli Bouncer—affirmed that belief. “They were highly appreciated. For Tamannaah Bhatia, it was a rebirth as an actor,” he says. As he prepares to return to cinemas, optimism is tempered with caution. “Our industry needs a reboot—in terms of actor pricing, entourage costs, content… I hope this dark phase passes and we do well at the box office.”
On the debate around star indulgences on set—sparked by Aamir Khan’s remarks on excessive vanity vans—Bhandarkar is unequivocal. “I completely agree with him. If you are just one actor on set, why do you need six vans?” Asked about the paparazzi controversy involving Jaya Bachchan, his response remains measured. “See, everyone has their own point of view,” he says.
A chronicler of ambition, fragility, fame, and fallout, the Padma Shri-awardee remains committed to stories that unfold behind closed doors, where truth—unvarnished and uneasy—often proves more dramatic than fiction.