Ameesha Patel says Sanjay Leela Bhansali asked her to retire after Gadar: 'I didn't understand it at that time'

Bollywood star Ameesha Patel, who is celebrating Gadar 2 success, talked about the early days in the industry, in her recent interview.  She recalled a conversation with Sanjay Leela Bhansali and revealed that the director asked her to take retirement after Gadar.

While speaking to Bollywood Hungama, Ameesha said after her performance in debut film Gadar, Bhansali reached out to her and gave her a compliment.  She said, "Mr. Sanjay Leela Bhansali, after watching Gadar, wrote a really beautiful letter, a complimentary letter to me. And when I had a meeting with him, he said, ‘Ameesha, you should retire now.’"

 

 

 

 

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She added, “ When I said, ‘Why?’ He said, ‘Because you’ve already achieved in two films what most people don't achieve in their entire career. Once in a lifetime, a Mughal-e-Azam, a Mother India, a Pakeezah, a Sholay get made. You had it in your second film. So what's next?' I didn't understand it at that time because I was a kid, so new to the film world.”

The actress further said she didn’t realise the wisdom in Bhansali's words, but later she relaised when achieving hits like Humraaz, Bhool Bhulaiyaa,  and  Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd., none could match the success of her film Gadar. She said, “Gadar has set the bar so high that anything in my films that were superhits after that...became a straight comparison to Gadar.”

Ameesha discussed her 2002 release Yeh Hai Jalwa, which starred her and Salman and was directed by David Dhawan. The film was a commercial failure and was released around the time that Salman was embroiled in the hit-and-run case.

“Yeh Hai Jalwa was one of David Dhawan's best films. Salman has never looked more handsome and the music and everything was good. But I think because earlier the media gave news the audiences were not so open about accepting some negative news about their favourite actors. Salman's accident had newly happened so Yeh Hai Jalwa got sidelined. Had the audience been open to it…that is one film that would have done really well,” the actress said.

Read|Ameesha Patel blames Salman Khan's hit-and-run case for the failure of this film of hers: 'That would have done...'