Sanjay Bhansali’s Plea For Euthanasia Heard!

Has the New Andrew Garfield Bio-Pic Copied Sanjay Bhansali’s Guzaarish?

With the Supreme Court allowing passive euthanasia, filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali recalls his own strong plea for the same in Guzaarish.

And now another  Hollywood film seems to have borrowed Bhansali’s idea of happy-dying in  Guzaarish.

​In  Andy Serkis’ bio-pic Breathe on  Robin Cavendish who contracted polio at the age  of 28 and defied doctors’ doomsday declarations by out-living all the medical prophecies, Cavendish played  by  the brilliant actor  Andrew Garfield decides  to end his life in a nice happy surrounding inviting his closest friends and loved ones for a farewell party on the  night before he pulls the plug on his  life.

A startling ode to euthanasia this was the exact scenario constructed  in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Guzaarish  seven years earlier where the quadriplegic hero Ethan(Hrithik Roshan) invites  his close friends  over for a happy send-off.

A coincidental similarity between two euthanasiac films made in two different continents  and time zones?

Says Sanjay Bhansali, “I haven’t seen  Breathe. But the similarities  must be  unintentional. I remember when  I had  made Guzaarishthere was plenty  of  hue and cry over my plea  to allow the  irreversibly ailing to end their lives.”

Guzaarish about a paraplegic hero(Hrithik Roshan)’s plea for death was based on someone close to the director Sanjay LeelaBhansali.Though he wouldn’t  like to  name the person it’s someone very close to the director whom he saw going through intense suffering.

Says Bhansali, “Though I am no stranger to  pain , what I saw in this person took pain and suffering to  another level.I realized that there comes a point in every life when a fullstop is the  only solution.”

This  person, who is both both a close relative and a dear friend of the director, did not have  the emotional or physical strength  to end his own life. This is when the  suffering person and Sanjay began to read up extensively on mercy killing.

Says  the source, “Because of the suffering of this friend I began to get seriously interested in the subject of mercy killing. I began to read up as much as possible on the subject. My  research showed that mercy killing was prohibited by  law  in many countries including India .Almost  a year of studying the sensitive subject I concluded that every human being should have the right to die with dignity.”

That’s  how  Guzaarish was born.

Says  the director, “The pain and suffering and  the dignity with which I’ve seen someone very close to my heart bear with them, promoted me to research  on the subject of  mercy killing.I was shocked  to read  newspaper reports of  people pleading to let the life of a critically ailing child/parent/spouse go.”

While researching on  the subject of  euthanasia Bhansali fobbed off all temptation  to watch films  on the subject of mercy killing.

Says the  director, “I didn’t want to  get even remotely influenced in my thought and vision by what other filmmakers have done on the subject.”