When Producers Didn't Want To Back Ghayal Because Of Sunny Deol’s Name

“Aane waale chaubis ghanton mein tumhare chaubis tukde karke, har tukde ka alag alag antim sanskar karoonga”. This and many other trademark dialogues from Ghayal, 1990, delivered by Ajay Mehra (Sunny Deol) in his heavy baritone were equivalent to a lion’s roar and loved by the audience. With a box office collection of Rs 20 crore, Ghayal was termed a blockbuster and continued to be remembered for generations to come. But do you know that at one point, no producer was willing to invest money in this film? According to a report published in the Hindustan Times, no one was willing to produce this film directed by Rajkumar Santoshi as they couldn’t envision profit with Sunny in the lead role. At this point, when all seemed finished for Rajkumar, Dharmendra stepped forward to produce the film via his production house Vijayta Films and the rest as we all know his history.

Apart from Sunny, producers were also hesitant to associate with Ghayal because Rajkumar used to be an assistant under filmmaker Govind Nihalani. Govind was extremely popular for making art films and producers thought that Rajkumar might imbibe some of the characteristic traits from Govind’s work and create an art-oriented film which cannot be considered a profitable venture. Had it not been for Dharmendra’s effort, Ghayal would have never been made. Besides these facts, many other interesting anecdotes are also associated with this action thriller. As stated in the Hindustan Times, Sunny was not the first choice to play the character of Ajay Mehra. Before him, Rajkumar had contemplated the names of Kamal Haasan and Mithun Chakraborty. But since Dharmendra was the producer, he had to oblige him by taking Sunny in the key role. Sunny also didn’t disappoint the director on his part and showcased a memorable performance.

Besides the male lead, there was also a difference of opinion over the female lead. Sunny wanted to rope in Dimple Kapadia for Varsha Bharti’s role but Dharmendra was keen on casting Meenakshi Seshadri. In the end, Dharmendra’s opinion was considered and Sunny-Meenakshi formed the most loved pair on screen.

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