Hyderabad: Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam is the film that put Bollywood's ace filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali on the map though he had already written Parinda, 1942: A Love Story and directed critically acclaimed but commercially flopped Khamoshi: The Musical. It was SLB's success as a director as more than how Aishwarya looked in the film people were talking about her performance. Bhansali had given only a one-line brief to Aishwarya which helped her look and sound different from what she has already done.
In a throwback interview, Bhansali has spoken at length about how Aiswarya completely was in sync with his vision for the film and her character Nandini. Heaping praise on his then muse, SLB had said, "She listened to the script as nobody till date has heard my script. Very careful, very sharp, very attentive, very involved. Correctly moved and chocked at the right places in the script, correctly laughed at the right place, correctly understood the character, the passion and the fire that the girl (Nandini) is all about."
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He further added, "My only line to her was that, 'Aish I want a lot of fire, a lot of passion. I want a lot of honesty in the film. If you can be honest with the script you will deliver a good performance. But if you are aware of being Aishwarya Rai and Miss World then let's not do this.'"
Well, Aishwarya must have followed what SLB had told her before taking up the film and as a result, she took home the Filmfare Best Actress award for Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam for the portrayal of flamboyant Nandini Darbar.
