Sunny Deol and Ameesha Patel’s Gadar: Ek Prem Katha recently completed 25 years since its release. Ameesha Patel, who played the lead role in the film, recently shared her memories of shooting the movie and recalled how nervous she was while filming an emotional scene with late veteran actor Amrish Puri.
‘I was shivering’
Speaking to India Today, Ameesha said, “Oh, I miss Amrish ji tremendously. The scary part wasn’t because of him — he was a doll to work with. He was extremely witty, humorous, and had such an edgy sense of humour, something you would never guess from the kind of Mogambo and Ashraf Ali roles he had done.”
Ameesha was just one film old in the industry when she began shooting for Gadar. When she first arrived on the film’s set, her opening scene was far from easy. She was immediately asked to shoot the emotionally charged post-interval confrontation scene opposite Amrish Puri, who played the role of her father in the film.
Recalling how nervous she was while filming the sequence, she said, “That confrontation scene was my very first scene in Gadar, and it was opposite Amrish ji. I was s***ting bricks. I was shivering. But it was so amazing to work with him. He made it so easy for me. He never made me feel like he was this super accomplished actor and I was just some silly newcomer. Nobody knew (about) Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai then; it was still under production.”
Ameesha was advised not to star opposite Sunny
During an interaction with the same publication, Ameesha had earlier shared that she was advised against starring opposite Sunny Deol in the film because he was much older than her. She said that while she does not mind age gaps between actors, the story should justify them. She felt that Gadar’s narrative did exactly that, as it revolved around a hardworking man falling in love with a girl studying in a convent school. She said she ‘understood the contrast between Tara Singh’s ruggedness and Sakina’s refinement.’
About Gadar
Gadar was set against the backdrop of the 1947 Partition of India. The film told the story of Tara Singh, a Sikh truck driver, who falls in love with Sakina, a Muslim woman from an influential family. During the Partition, Sakina is saved by Tara and comes to India, where she starts a new life with him. However, their happiness is short-lived as Sakina is taken back to Pakistan by her family. This forces Tara to cross the border and fight against all odds to bring his wife and son back.