Salman Khan’s hit-and-run incident was why David Dhawan’s Yeh Hai Jalwa failed, Mangal Pandey need not be written-off ‘badly’: Ameesha Patel

Ameesha Patel believes Yeh Hai Jalwa was David Dhawan's one of the best works, but it didn't bring the audience to the theatres because Salman got involved in the 'hit and run' case.

Salman Khan and Ameesha Patel in Yeh Hai Jalwa. (Express archive photo)

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Actor Ameesha Patel made her acting debut opposite Hrithik Roshan in Rakesh Roshan’s hit film, Kaho Naa… Pyaar Hai, and her second Hindi movie, Gadar: Ek Prem Katha also emerged as superhit. However, after the success of her first couple of films, Patel had a string of flops to her name, though she believed some of them could have had a better run in the theatres. One such film was David Dhawan’s Yeh Hai Jalwa (2002), where she was cast opposite Salman Khan.

Ameesha believes Yeh Hai Jalwa was David Dhawan’s one of the best works, but it didn’t bring the audience to the theatres because Salman got involved in the ‘hit and run’ case around the film’s release.

She told Bollywood Hungama, “Yeh Hai Jalwa was one of David Dhawan’s best films. Salman had never looked more handsome, and music and everything was good. But at that time, the audiences were not okay with accepting any negative news about their favourite actors. Salman’s accident had newly happened. So, Yeh Hai Jalwa got sidelined. Had the audience been open about it, it was one film which would have really done well.”

Rishi Kapoor, Kader Khan, Salman Khan and Rati Agnihotri in Yeh Hai Jalwa. (Express archive photo)

Also read | Utkarsh Sharma says he vehemently denied being part of Gadar, didn’t want to do the film: ‘I said a hard no’

Yeh Hai Jalwa was a romantic comedy which also starred Sanjay Dutt, Shammi Kapoor, Kader Khan, Rati Agnihotri, Anupam Kher, Kiran Kumar, Rinke Khanna and Sharad Kapoor. The film was inspired by the Hollywood film, Carbon Copy.

‘Mangal Pandey need not to be written off so badly’

Besides Yeh Hai Jalwa, Ameesha believed her other films Zameer: The Fire Within (2005) and Mangal Pandey: The Rising (2005) would do well at the box office. She said, “I didn’t think Mangal Pandey needed to be written off so badly the way they wrote it off.”

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

However, the actor has once again tasted success with Gadar 2. The Anil Sharma directorial has broken several box office records. It has entered the coveted Rs 400 cr club and is eyeing the spot of the highest-grossing Bollywood film. Ameesha has reprised her role of Sakheena in the movie and Sunny Deol is back as Tara Singh.

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