Ameesha Patel recalls when Gadar was called ‘gutter’, says Bollywood bigwigs discouraged her from taking up mother’s role

On the trailer launch, Ameesha recalled how everyone in the industry had wondered about her decision to play a mother in Gadar, especially because she was playing only college girls’ role in all her films. “When Anil ji had narrated me the story of the first Gadar, there were several people–I don’t want to take names–popular names of the film industry, bigwigs from the industry, they said why would you do this role? I was working in a Salman Khan film, where I was a college girl, in an Ajay Devgn film, I was a college student, in both the films with Hrithik Roshan, I was a college student.

“So, when this story was narrated to me and Kaho Na Pyaar Hai was yet to release, everyone told me I won’t be able to do the role of a mother! I love challenges, I want to step out of my comfort zone and conquer them. I had faith, I knew my director was brilliant. I knew a love story so beautiful was never written and will not ever be written. I just had to say yes,” the actor said.

Ameesha said it was a “difficult” task and recalled how Anil Sharma would sit patiently with her to get her lines and look right. For six months and 12 hours a day, the actor recalled, she worked with the filmmaker to get Sakina right.

“Before Gadar was released, people called it ‘gutter’. It really hurt me, I thought I won’t be dejected but in fact, work harder. When Gadar 2 was in talks, the same conversations started happening. ‘Dude have you seen yourself on Instagram?’, that a girl who did Lazy Lamhe, how can she do Gadar now? How will she play a mother to a boy in his 20s? Those same questions were raised. But I just had to do it. We kept doing look tests for hours on end. Finally, I got a text from Anil Sharma, who wrote, ‘My precious Sakina is back.'”

Gadar 2 is set in Lahore during the year 1971 where Tara finds himself in the middle of ‘Crush India movement’ and travels to Pakistan yet again — this time to bring back his son Jeete, played by Utkarsh Sharma. The film will release in theatres on August 11 and clash with Akshay Kumar’s OMG2.