'Cinemas should always sparkle': Sunny Deol, Ameesha Patel celebrate Gadar 2's success in Dubai

At a time when audience has become more picky in terms of accepting entertainment content, be it films or TV shows, it would have been hard to anticipate Gadar 2's success despite it featuring Sunny Deol's angry-young-man, hand pump-breaking character.

But here we are — Rs4 billion and counting in India and overseas (courtesy Zee Studios) for the Anil Sharma directorial which brings back Sunny's Tara Singh and Ameesha Patel's Sakina — the sequel is undoubtedly a commercial success, especially after its reported budget of Rs600 million.

Celebrating its remarkable success, the star co-actors Sunny and Ameesha were in Dubai last week when we caught up with them to talk all things Gadar 2. Excerpts from the interview:

Gadar 2 is doing remarkably well, it has earned over Rs4 billion in India as well as overseas. So how do you feel about the success of the film which is a sequel to a project that released over two decades ago?

Sunny: Well, I am very happy, very excited. And the way the people have embraced the film and they are enjoying it. This is the beauty of it, that they're enjoying the success, and they're enjoying the cinema. Usually we have a film, they say it's a hit, but you don't see people enjoying it outside. This is a film which they are enjoying and they're making it a hit, and they're enjoying the whole experience, it's like a big festival.

Cinema is finally back after a few dry years due to the pandemic...

Sunny: Yeah, it is! Because this film has brought back three to four hundred cinemas that were shut. They just sprung back to life. And they are just lighting up all over again, which feels so nice. Cinema is something that should always be sparkling up there, shining as bright as possible because that's what we want – to go and see a film on the silver screen and enjoy it.

Ameesha: The best part is when Gadar 2 was under production, people would ask me, "So it'll release on OTT directly, right? Who's going to go back to theatres and why would they go back for a film that you're doing 22 years later?" And I used to just keep silent and say that Gadar is not a film meant for OTT; it's a 70mm experience. And I guess the box office is answering all those questions now as well as the doubts that people had, which is a very overwhelming feeling. You feel blessed that the audience is the deciding factor to validate anyone's hard work.

How did it feel returning to the sets of Gadar after 22 years?

Sunny: I think it was beautiful because we came back to the same character again, the same family, and shooting at similar locations. It was just a continuation, and all the moments, you know when you hear the story and you love it and you want it to be done, then you enjoy every moment of it. We all become a big team that wants to recreate it properly. So everyone did their best so that they do justice to it.

Ameesha: It was like a time capsule. I felt I had stepped from the previous film onto this set, it just felt comfortable like home.

You are an onscreen couple; what's your favourite quality about each other?

Sunny: My favourite quality about Ameesha is that she talks, and I listen.

Ameesha: (Laughs) And I complain. I go to him for everything. He is the real-life Tara for Sakina, and for everything.

Sunny: She also insists on giving me gifts, and I have to say no more! (Laughs)

Ameesha: But I think nothing's changed with us. We've only grown more fond of each other, more respectful from the first day that we ever got together as colleagues. The comfort level you see on screen is real. That's the comfort level we have in real life, and that's why the chemistry shows on screen. There's nothing fake about us towards each other.

How do you feel about Gadar 2 garnering so much love overseas?

Sunny: I think I feel blessed. For me, the wealth is love. It's not physical money, it's love. Somehow, from the era of my father, the way people are connected with the family and with me and all of us, I feel blessed. I want to stay blessed like this forever.

Moving on to the film; there's this famous scene in Gadar where you remove the hand pump. But, in the sequel, you come near the hand pump, and that, somehow, has an even bigger impact among the audiences as they begin to whistle and clap...

Sunny: I know it is because it kind of takes you back to what the pump can do (laughs). And when the people chasing him see what he's seeing, they say, "Oh, run away before he pulls it out and kills all of us."

Ameesha: It was an immensely amazing moment in the film, and it was immensely comic as well to see the way they are so in fear and they run away. That scene got huge claps in the theatre as well.

What's something people can take away from your characters?

Ameesha: I think Tara and Sakina, with their family, are the quintessential, ideal family; they set relationship goals. It's such a pure, clean romance which is not shown on the screen any more. They stand rock solid beside each other in the face of adversity and any kind of trouble, willing to go through any limits to protect each other. It spreads a dialogue of living in harmony, living in peace, letting humanity and the language of love be the biggest religion. And that's a huge lesson that Gadar wanted to teach.

And while the films are set in olden times, do you think such a story would be possible if it's set in the current modern era?

Sunny: We ask all these kind of questions, can this happen, can that happen? Let's be happy where it has happened and is being enjoyed. Let today's time come up with something new and let that become a reflection of the same thing. Love is very universal and the emotions are the same everywhere. It's just about the family and nothing else.

Ameesha: And that's the reason for 22 years, people lived with these characters so close to their hearts because they felt we are them, or that they want to be us. They wanted that ideal scenario and we gave them that.

So are we going to see more of you together on screen in the future?

Ameesha: I hope so, because people love us together, and it would be a shame not to give the audience their favourite couple.

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