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

Son of filmmaker Anil Sharma, who has helmed the Gadar franchise, Utkarsh says he used to never like the spotlight on him and would vehemently deny that he was the same boy in the film whenever kids or parents end up recognising him. “I used to not like the attention, I would always deny it! I hid (that I was in Gadar) and only my best friends used to know it but then they told everyone! But nothing changed as such, I didn’t want to change at all.”

His association with Gadar wasn’t the only thing that Utkarsh denied. The actor says he had even turned down the film, when it came his way. “I didn’t want to do the film when I was a kid, I wanted to be a cricketer. But the portions with the kid were about to begin of Gadar and because Ameesha Patel would keep coming home for rehearsals, she and a line producer told my father that why doesn’t he cast me. I said a hard no, I just wasn’t interested in acting at all.

“Then I saw that my father was in trouble, he had cast a child for the part but there were some date issues happening. The shooting was supposed to take place in a difficult terrain and would last for nights. It was tough to convince parents to allow their child for this. My mother told me that I could help my father by doing this role, so I just said yes. But I didn’t know I had to wake up early mornings, run on the train and do all of that!”

Utkarsh says for a long time he didn’t realise the impact of Gadar. He had a hint of the juggernaut, because it enjoyed a strong recall value, but it came to a fruition when the film re-released recently, and he saw shows going houseful, even after two decades.

The actor now hopes the much-awaited sequel of the film generates the same euphoria, the kind he remembers experiencing when he watched Gadar with his parents in Maratha Mandir.

“My father was with the distributors in the balcony. My mother and I went to the stall, but because it was houseful, we had to sit on the steps to watch it! The moment the big showdown scene between Sunny sir and Amrish Puri sir came, the big dialoguebaazi moment, I saw people stood up on their chairs out of joy!

“They were so thrilled–and people of different faiths were watching it all together–they were clapping and screaming so much that we couldn’t hear the next dialogue! In my head, I would be like, ‘Oh please calm down the next dialogue is even better!’ It was a wonderful time to watch cinemas. But even today, I believe if you make a good film, cinema halls will turn into stadiums,” he added.