Actor Sunny Deol’s films saw a major resurgence at the domestic box office three years ago, with the blockbuster success of Anil Sharma’s action movie Gadar 2, the sequel to their 2001 seminal film Gadar. Ever since, Sunny has headlined films like Gopichand Malineni’s action thriller Jaat last year, Anurag Sharma’s period war drama Border 2, Siddharth P Malhotra’s courtroom drama Ikkis, and most recently, Rajkumar Santoshi’s Partition drama Batwara 1947 this year.

Sunny Deol’s low phase

But Sunny encountered a major slump after Gadar, one of the biggest success of his career, back in the early 2000s. He recently pointed out that the decline in his career back then wasn’t sudden, but rather quite gradual. “Along with Gadar, I also delivered Indian, which was a much bigger hit than Lagaan and all the other films of that time. It did two to three times of Lagaan’s business. Gadar did much more than that,” claimed Sunny.

N Maharajan’s 2001 action thriller Indian, which released a few months after Gadar, earned Rs 43 crore at the box office, as opposed to Ashutosh Gowariker’s seminal period drama Lagaan, starring Aamir Khan, which earned Rs 34 crore in India. Gadar, which released on the same day as Lagaan, went on to amass Rs 77 crore at the domestic box office.

“Suddenly, corporates came in, and the film industry’s format began changing,” Sunny said on Shubhankar Mishra’s podcast. “But after that, I don’t know why I wasn’t getting the right subjects and makers,” he added. Even his 2005 action comedy Jo Bole So Nihaal, helmed by Betaab (1983) director Rahul Rawail, fell prey to objections from the Sikh community, even leading to the death of one and injury of 49 audience members during bombing of a theatre in New Delhi.

“That film didn’t go too far because of politics. So, we had to withdraw it because of certain issues. These days, when politics is entering films, that should not happen. We’re not doing anything. We’re just entertainers. Anyone says anything rubbish outside of India, but there’s no censorship on that,” argued Sunny.

Sunny Deol in Gadar 2.

‘Was happy even when in debt’

Sunny claimed that despite the decline in his career, he didn’t attend too many events for money. “I can’t do so many things for money. But to be very honest, I’m very happy. Even when I was in debt, I was very happy. I was living my life,” he said. Three years ago, days after Gadar 2 opened big, a bank issued an e-auction notice of the actor’s property Sunny Villa in Juhu, Mumbai because he defaulted on the payment of outstanding debt and interest of Rs 55.99 crore.

“The money I owed was all mine. I didn’t borrow it from anyone. I didn’t owe anyone anything. I just had to sell my own asset and pay back,” claimed Sunny on the podcast. After he agreed to clear the dues, the bank withdrew the notice. Sunny took that loan while producing his 2016 action film Ghayal Returns, which he also directed and starred in.

Story continues below this ad

That was the second of the three times he turned director — besides the 1999 romantic drama Dillagi, starring him and younger brother Bobby Deol, and the 2019 romantic film Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas, which marked the acting debut of his son Karan Deol. However, none of these three films worked at the box office, causing tremendous financial strain on the actor.

“I don’t know why it didn’t work. So many people come up to me and say they loved Dillagi, but I can’t help it. I did what I wanted to, and gave my best. I always trust a person and move ahead rather than having doubts in my head. You need to be fully invested in everything — business, acting, and direction. So, it becomes very difficult to do all of them at the same time,” explained Sunny.

Sunny recently told SCREEN that producers weren’t even willing to back his films with Rajkumar Santoshi, with whom he scored a hattrick at the box office — Ghayal (1990), Damini (1993), and Ghatak (1996). But it was only after Gadar 2 worked that Aamir Khan approached Sunny to headline Santoshi’s new film, Batwara 1947, which released in cinemas this past Friday.

Story continues below this ad

“We were sitting on this story since 2010, but we were fortunate that Aamir wanted to do this film since he had heard it much earlier,” said Sunny. However, despite his reunion with Santoshi after 30 years, Batwara 1947 has managed to earn only Rs 26.50 crore at the domestic box office during its opening weekend, even less than what Sunny’s last theatrical release, Border 2, collected in its opening day itself.