The huge success of the recently released chartbuster movie ‘Gadar Part 2’ has brought in a fresh streak of luck, glory and renewed fame for Ameesha Patel as this chartbuster movie marks her coming back to the Hindi movie industry after more than 22 years. Her reprising her role of ‘Sakeena Begum’ has seen her garnering immense appreciation from every corner of the country. Her pairing with Sunny Deol in the first instalment of the movie, ‘Gadar’, turned out to be a massive success as soon as it was released, and the same thing happened with the release of the second instalment too. However, it is not the first time that the actress has seen hits as her collaboration with other great actors such as Hrithik Roshan too have brought success. Recently, during an interview with an online news portal, she revealed that though she had faced immense success in her film career, she too has some regrets that would still disturb her and make her feel like reversing the situation. She revealed how she would still regret the moments of having to turn down the offers to pair with some great names from the Hindi movie industry in films that later turned out to be some of the biggest milestone movies in the Bollywood industry.

The Chances Slipped Through Her Fingers

Ameesha Patel saw her biggest hit with her debut in the Hindi movie industry. It was the Hrithik Roshan and Ameesha Patel starrer thriller and romantic movie ‘Kaho Naa…Pyaar Hai’ brought her face to face with public fame and popularity. Her second collaboration with Sunny Deol in ‘Gadar’ made her a household name throughout the country. As her fame kept increasing, she was offered to share the screen space with several other big names from the industry, namely, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Sanjay Dutt.

One of the films that Ameesha Patel turned down was the Salman Khan starrer smashing hit ‘Tere Naam’ in the year 2003. A Satish Kaushik directorial, the film became an instant hit as soon as it was released in the theatres as it was able to capture the nuances of romance perfectly with an emotional narrative. The role of Ameesha Patel was then offered to Bhumika Chawla, who stole the hearts of the audience. It was the perfect opportunity for Ameesha ‘Sakina Begum’ Patel as that could have added a new feather to the cap of success that she was wearing already. Unfortunately, she could not find the date to join the shooting and so had to miss out on the golden opportunity. This, she feels, has undoubtedly affected her career as she missed the chance to share a moment of romance with the ‘Bhaijaan’ of the Hindi movie industry on the screen.

Another repetition of the turning down thing happened with Ameesha Patel when she was approached to share the space of the screen with the eternally ‘Jawaan’ Khan of the Hindi movie industry, Shah Rukh Khan. Directed by Aziz Mirza, the Shah Rukh Khan starrer movie called ‘Chalte Chalte’ was a romantic drama that immediately became the talk of the tinsel town of Bollywood with its inception. The role of Ameesha then passed over to the ‘Mardani’ actress of Bollywood, Rani Mukherjee, who won over our hearts with her exceptional acting skills in displaying the romance with Shah Rukh Khan on the screen. Though she never stated the real reason behind her missing out on the opportunity, it was cited that she faced a problem with the dates here too. This missed catch too could have added a feather more to the cap of success that she is donning at the moment.

It seems that she was going through a ‘slipping time’ in quite the literal meaning of the term as she missed her chance yet another time to be on the theatre screen opposite Sanjay Dutt in the hit movie ‘Munnabhai MBBS’. The Rajkumar Hirani directorial was a massive success that had spiralled Sanjay Dutt himself to huge fame. The comedy-drama became an oft-discussed film forever in the history of the Hindi movie industry like Amitabh Bachchan’s ‘Sholay’ or Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham’. Ameesha cited date issues here o yet again. The role was passed down to Gracy Singh, who debuted with Amir Khan’s ‘Lagaan’. Naturally, the rejection to be a part of the film affected the career trajectory of Ameesha Patel badly.

During the interview regarding her just-released film, ‘Gadar Part 2’, she was asked how would she describe those moments of her life, when she had been turning don such hit films one after the other. A smiling Ameesha replied, “There were a lot of films I couldn’t do. I turned them down because of date issues so I couldn’t regret it. Chalte Chalte was one of the films, Munna Bhai was offered to me. Tere Naam. There were a lot of reasons I couldn’t do those films because I had already committed and there’s only one Ameesha. You can’t be everywhere at that time,” lamenting that she now thinks she should have become a part of those films.

The consequences of the rejection were profound for Ameesha Patel. While she had a banging starts with ‘Kaho Naa… Pyaar Hai’, subsequent choices regarding some of her other films had failed to create the same impact that it could have created had she been wise enough to avoid the clashing of the dates. This made her struggle hard to find solid footing in the industry after the flopping of some of her later-day films such as ‘Humraaz’, ‘Mangal Pandey: The Rising’ and some more. It is now evident that her choice could have had a significant effect on her career.

Meanwhile, on the success front, she is enjoying the massive fame game that her movie is going through. The movie has crossed the budget to become one of the highest-grossing films in the year 2023 and is giving every other film a run for its money. The film has been directed by Anil Sharma with Sunny ‘Paaji’ reprising ‘Tara Singh’, Ameesha Patel as ‘Sakeena’ with Utkarsh Sharma and Manish Wadhwa. The present collection as of now of the movie is almost 308.5 crore rupees.