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Director-producer Suneel Darshan has not just never shied away from talking about his infamous fallouts with various industry insiders, including actors Sunny Deol and Akshay Kumar, but has also never minced words when addressing what went wrong between them. Recently, he opened up about his spat with the Gadar actor, mentioning that the latter broke his trust.
Sharing that he had “a very bad experience” with Sunny Deol while working on his directorial debut Ajay (1996), Suneel revealed that the matter involved financial issues as well. “He was supposed to pay me a certain amount as he had acquired the rights for Ajay’s distribution overseas. Then he turned up saying, ‘It’s Christmas time, so the banks in the UK are shut. I’ll definitely pay you later.’ When the opportunity came later, he said, ‘I’m sorry, I don’t have the money, but I intend to pay you. Please help me.’ He was starting a movie at that point called London with Gurinder Chadha. He said, ‘You’ve been a close friend and filmmaker, and I have great respect for you.’ I had supported him a lot while he was producing Barsaat (1995) as well. If he doesn’t have a bad memory, he should remember it,” Suneel quipped during a chat with Bollywood Hungama.
The filmmaker further stated that although he kept supporting Sunny, the actor never reciprocated it. As per Sunny’s promise to work with him in another film instead of paying the money, Suneel approached him with a story, which eventually became Jaanwar (1999). However, Sunny turned it down. “He said he was not comfortable with the subject and wanted me to work more on it. I said, ‘This is a lie.’ Soon after, certain untoward incidents happened, which left me shocked. That’s when we decided not to work together again.”
Although Sunny “assured” he would return Suneel’s money along with interest, the filmmaker maintained that he never kept his word, and the matter reached the court. “Then Sunny went and told the court that he didn’t have the liquidity to pay me, so he said he would do a film with me again, which the court felt was the best way to solve the issue. Much against my wishes, I gave in to it. There were some terms and conditions, and he flouted them. Only after putting in a year’s worth of effort and money did I realise that the intent was suspicious. Thus, I walked out of that project and approached a division bench court. It’s pending there now,” he added.
Pointing out that he had known Sunny even before he became an actor, Suneel Darshan expressed that he “believed in Sunny Deol.” “When you put someone on a pedestal and then that image falls, it is more than just a momentary loss,” he concluded.
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