MUMBAI: In the 1990s, Sunny Deol collaborated with filmmaker Rajkumar Santoshi on some of his biggest hits. Among Sunny's most well-liked movies are Ghayal and Ghatak, and in Damini, when Sunny made a special appearance, he walked away with the spotlight. He received a National Film Award for the movie as well, but they haven't collaborated again since. Fans were ecstatic when the duo's collaboration was recently confirmed by Aamir Khan Productions in Lahore in 1947.

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It was clear that the popular director-actor pair had a falling out, but Santoshi recently talked openly about it, saying, “We did have a fallout. But he recognized me at a time when the world didn’t know me. Ghayal is my first film. He gave me the opportunity to make the film. He produced it. I was very new to the film industry but he gave me the full freedom to make the film my way. Yeh unka badappan hai (It is his greatness.)”

After it was announced that the two of them were producing two films about Bhagat Singh, there were rumors of a falling out between Santoshi and Deol. Bobby Deol played the major part in Sunny Deol's 23rd March 1931: Shaheed, which Santoshi was reportedly slated to helm. Instead, he decided to helm Ajay Devgn's The Legend of Bhagat Singh. According to reports, this caused a breach between the two. At the box office, the movies fought each other. Sunny Deol and Rajkumar Santoshi did not collaborate again after this.

In a previous chat, Santoshi said that Sunny and he intended to cooperate on Ghatak following the success of Ghayal and that Damini's special appearance was not intended for Sunny. He had actually considered Om Puri for the part.

He said, “Yes, we had the thought of bringing in Om Puri and showing his confrontation with Amrish Puri. Sunny had become a very big hero after Ghayal. He was supposed to do another action-packed film, Ghatak, with me. And the character in Damini comes in reel no 12. Hence, we thought that instead of Sunny, we should bring in Om Puri. However, the producer and Om Puri’s secretary had some misunderstandings over the fees. Then I thought of trying Sunny. And he came on board gladly.”

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Credits – The Indian Express