Mukesh Khanna recalls playing dad to 10 year older Feroz Khan in Yalgaar: ‘I became a joke in Bollywood’

Mukesh Khanna then revealed that the equation between them got affected after the actor didn’t invite him on stage at the premiere of the film.

He said, “After that incident, I was avoiding him throughout. But, we happened to meet at Sanjay Khan’s daughter’s wedding. At the wedding, I think he noticed that I was ignoring him, so he came to me and greeted me. At that point, I revealed to him that I was upset with him after what he did at Yalgaar’s premiere. He told me, ‘Mukesh, I was tensed about something and it skipped my mind.'”

Not convinced with Feroz Khan’s answer, Mukesh ended up confessing, “Sir, people did not accept me in your father’s role. He said, ‘Mukesh, I took you for your Pitamah image.’ This answer made me quiet.”

In the same interview, Mukesh Khanna revealed the story of how he signed the film. He shared, “I had rejected the offer. An assistant came at my house near Marine Drive and claimed, ‘I have come from Feroz Khan’s team’. I greeted him, we had a conversation over chai. He narrated me the story and said, ‘You will be the commissioner, you are dealing with a don played by Kabir Bedi and Feorz Khan will play an inspector, who is also your son.’ This whole time, I didn’t have objection that how can I play father to Feroz Khan. I just had in mind, I don’t want to do this film.”

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He added, “He was stunned. He was like, ‘Feroz Khan is offering you a role, and you are rejecting it?’ I said, ‘Parvez, my problem is I invest my everything into any role I play. And if I will a commissioner here, I will end up becoming another Iftekhar. Nobody could match up the role of Commissioner of Police like him. I don’t want to do this.'”

The assistant then narrated the story to Mukesh Khanna another time. “After the second narration, I realised, this is the story of the commissioner of police. He is just not another character. It was after this that I agreed to do the film. And I didn’t do wrong thing because we were in Dubai, and during a conversation Raj Babbar said, ‘You were the best part of Yalgaar’.”

Yalgaar was the ninth highest grossing film of the year.