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Filmmaker Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra recently opened up about how he slipped into alcoholism after the box office failure of his film Delhi 6. The Abhishek Bachchan starrer questioned people’s blind faith but did not strike a chord with the audience at the time. Now, the director has opened up about how he battled alcoholism and came out of that phase.
Rakeysh had revealed that after the first weekend collections translated audience’s rejection, he had gone into a dark space for almost six months. He shared with Siddharth Kannan, “What happens first is that you feel that something wrong has happened with you and you start blaming the world for it, then you escape it and after that you realise. First comes the anger, then denial, and afterward the acceptance.”
He further added, “These are stages. The same happened with me. First I was angry, then I was in denial, and then came acceptance that maybe it lacked something, and you forget about it. When that realisation comes, you bounce back.”
Rakeysh still feels close to the film, which was set against Delhi’s oldest markets and residential area of Chandni Chowk. Choosing to look at the silver lining, he said, “For me, it is the most important period of my life that is Delhi 6 because the film is growing. Aaj hum uske baare mein baat kar rahe hain. (Today we are talking about it.)”
He also shared that in a recent podcast, his film was compared to iconic classics like Pyaasa and Mera Naam Joker. Standing by his film, whose premise was inspired by the then terror of monkey-man haunting the streets of Delhi, the filmmaker said that he called out people’s blind faith through his film.
“I called a spade a spade in that film. I questioned people for their misplaced faith. Unko laga ki ye mere faith ko question kar rahe hai. Maine unke blind faith ko question kiya tha. To shayad wo mera bachpana tha, which is ok, and atleast kiya to sahi. Atleast jab main apne aap se hi puchta hun ki meri favourite film kaunsi hai to wo Delhi 6 nikalti hai. (People thought that I am questioning their faith. I was questioning their blind faith. May be that was my childishness, which is okay. At least, I did. At least now, when I ask myself which is my favourite film, the answer is Delhi 6),” said the filmmaker.
Post the debacle of Delhi 6, Rakeysh gave blockbuster film Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. He later also directed Mirziya and Toofan.
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