Hansal Mehta recalls his clothes being torn, office vandalised by protestors: ‘I was in debt, took to drinking’

Mehta had also put his own money into the film, which further complicated matters. “I was in debt. There was no backing or support. It was a difficult time. I took to drinking. It was a dark phase of my life because I got separated from my wife around the same time. It was a time full of challenges. People who lent us the money were after us but I could only repay by working. They had to wait for a long time before I could return their money,” he said.

The troubles didn’t stop there. People residing in the Koliwala community agitated against the film for an allegedly “offensive dialogue,” which, according to them, reflected “poorly on the community.” For the unversed, Dil pe Mat Le Yaar!! is set against the backdrop of the Koliwada locality in Khar Danda village of Mumbai. “Three weeks after its release, some people who took offence to a dialogue in the film came to my office. They had not even seen the film. One of them had a camera and asked me to apologise. To control the situation, I apologised on the camera. However, a few days later, I received a call from another person who was in my office while I was home,” Mehta recalled.

He recalled visiting the Santa Cruz police station before heading to his office. Upon arrival, he saw women sitting in trucks outside his office. “I asked my friend, actor and poet, Kishor Kadam, who belongs to the locality, to speak with him, but they yelled at him for having acted in my film and threatened that they would set his house on fire.  They not only vandalised my office but also tore my clothes. They demanded that I visit Khar Danda locality and offer a public apology. To save my friend’s house and for his safety, I agreed to apologise despite politicians warning me against it,” Mehta said.

When the filmmaker, accompanied by officials from Mumbai Police and Kishor, reached the village, he was shocked to see thousands of people waiting for him. “They were chanting slogans and demanded that I touch an elderly woman’s feet and seek forgiveness. They also blackened by face. Seeing this, Kishor broke down and told me, ‘These are the same people who attended my events and clicked pictures with me and look what they did to us. I feel violated.’ The incident broke me,” he shared.

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A shattered Hansal took to alcoholism and left Mumbai for a while. “A politician advised me to leave the city and let the controversy blow over. I stayed at a lodge in Pune for a month. It was during the same time my friendship with Manoj Bajpayee also got strained,” he added. In an interview with the Economic Times, Mehta had revealed that the scene in Shahid where Rajkummar Rao’s face is blackened is inspired by incidents from his own life. “There is an autobiographical moment in it when Shahid’s face is blackened. It was sort of exorcising the demons of that event in my life. That event of 2000 has made me stronger. It is futile to remain a silent spectator,” he was quoted as saying.

Mehta, who has been vocal about his fallout with writer Apurva Asrani and actor Kangana Ranaut over their differences during the filming of Simran, said that the film’s failure also left him bankrupt. “I lost a lot of money. I borrowed a lot of money and repaid it with interest. For the next six years, I only worked to repay my loans. I still don’t have a house in Mumbai and stay in a rented apartment but I have no regrets or self sympathy. I am happy because of my work,” he shared.