Ameesha Patel says Sanjay Leela Bhansali asked her to retire after Gadar in 2001: ‘He wrote me a beautiful letter, and…’

She then recalled what Bhansali told her at the time, “He said, ‘Because you have already achieved in two films which most people don’t achieve in their entire career. Once in a lifetime (films like) Mughal-e-Azam, Mother India, Pakeezah, Sholay get made, you had it in your second film, so what next?'”

‘I was a kid, so new to the film world’

Ameesha said that since she was new to the movies at the time, she did not understand what the filmmaker meant. After Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai and Gadar, Ameesha appeared in films such as Bhool Bhulaiyaa, Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd, Humraaz, Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic, among others, but none of them were as successful as her first two films.

In a recent chat with ETimes, Ameesha had also shared that she was offered leading parts in Shah Rukh Khan’s Chalte Chalte, Salman Khan’s Tere Naam and Sanjay Dutt’s Munnabhai MBBS, but she had to turn down these roles as she was preoccupied with other films. “There were lots of films I couldn’t do. I turned them down because of date issues so I couldn’t regret it,” she said.

Ameesha is yet to announce her next film after Gadar 2.