MUMBAI: Actor Ameesha Patel, who shot to overnight fame with the 2001 blockbuster hit Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai...!, claims that her Gadar co-star Sunny Deol and she “ghost-directed portions of the film”. The sequel, directed by Anil Sharma, stormed the box office upon its release in August last year, solidifying its place among Bollywood’s highest-grossing movies.
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In an exclusive interview, Patel candidly discusses her collaborative dynamic with Sharma, marked by persistent creative differences.
“Even on the sets of Gadar, there were schedules that went on for 30-40 days for most of which I would not be talking to him [Anil Sharma] and he would not know how to convey something to me [directly]. It would only be conveyed through assistant directors. We’ve had our creative differences and that track record has carried on. We fight, we patch up,” Patel quips.
The 49-year-old adds that her personal relationship with the filmmaker hasn’t altered in the last 23 years and that she has “utmost respect for him”. “Anil Sharma and I are fine. If tomorrow he offers me any film, why only Gadar 3, I will be open to working with him,” Patel says.
Addressing her role in “ghost-directing” Gadar 2, Patel clarifies, “I wouldn’t claim to have ghost-directed the entire film, but we corrected crucial parts. Portions were ghost-directed, [including] many important parts that were key factors to making Gadar a soulful experience for the audience.”
Speaking about the challenges faced by films in the post-pandemic era, where high ticket prices and the easy accessibility of content on OTT pose significant hurdles for theatrical releases, Patel tells us, “In such a scenario, there’s no scope for error. So, when errors were being made, all three of us, my business partner Kunal Ghoomer, Sunny Deol and I, stepped in. We [Deol and Patel], came out of the comfort zone of just being behind the camera and we took charge.”
Patel says both Deol and she knew that the sequel had to be about their characters Tara and Sakeena and not about another couple which she claims the film would have been about it they hadn’t intervened and “taken the forefront”, hinting at Charanjeet [Utkarsh Sharma] and Muskaan’s [Simrat Kaur] romance in the film. “A lot of things that we shot was being edited out, that we later fought to be put back. It [the film] was imbalanced in a certain way and we brought back that balance, and put the flavour [of Gadar] that was missing, back [in it].”
“Today, when people see the result, the box office numbers, they know whatever we did was for the good of the film not for the good of an individual. There were no hidden agendas in any of our hearts. Creative differences are allowed and should be,” Patel wraps up.
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Credits - Hindustan Times
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