Bobby Deol Says Shekhar Kapur Backed Out From Barsaat Because Of Dharmendra's Legacy: 'He Was Scared'

Almost 30 years ago, Bobby Deol debuted in Rajkumar Santoshi’s 1995 film Barsaat. Initially, Shekhar Kapur was supposed to direct, but he backed out. On The Great Indian Kapil Show recently, Bobby revealed that Shekhar left because he was “scared” of his legacy. When asked if Bobby or the director was nervous about launching him due to his father Dharmendra and brother Sunny Deol’s popularity, Bobby joked, “Maybe that’s why Shekhar ran away. Shekhar Kapur. He was scared. But then Raj directed the film. But I never thought I was under pressure.”

Bobby had earlier opened up about the delay in the film, and how he was frustrated with continuous changes. Speaking at the Jagran Film Festival, Bobby had said, “I started shooting for the film very early and Shekhar Kapur was the director. We shot for the film for 27 days. He then got an offer from Hollywood to make Bandit Queen. Shekhar said, ‘I will do Bandit Queen and come back to do Barsaat,’ But my father told him that he didn’t want to delay it. He told Shekhar, ‘You go do your film, I will find somebody else.’ And I think Rajkumar Santoshi was waiting to direct my film. I got lucky with him.”

In the same interview, he also said that changes after the new director came on board were frustrating. “I was 26 when my film was released, I was 22 when I started shooting for it. After Shekhar left I had to wait for a year or so for the shooting to start again. Even then it took two years to make. The script kept changing. I took up running, playing drums, bike riding and other things to fit into different character requirements according to the changes in the script. It was frustrating,” he added.

Barsaat also starred Twinkle Khanna in the lead role. The film was a huge success at the box office. Bobby is currently riding high on the success of Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s family crime drama Animal, where he played the negative role of Abrar. He’s set to star in his debut Tamil film, Siva’s fantasy action movie Kanguva with Suriya, as well as his debut Telugu film, the period action adventure Hari Hari Veera Mallu – Part 1: Sword vs Spirit with Pawan Kalyan, and NBK109, another Telugu blockbuster featuring Nandamuri Balakrishna.