Ameesha Patel shares downside of being part of blockbuster film like 'Gadar: Ek Prem Katha'

Gadar Poster

Ameesha Patel made her Bollywood debut in 2000 with 'Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai,' and a year later she was seen in the mega-blockbuster 'Gadar: Ek Prem Katha,' which she acknowledges was a game changer for her career but adds that it had a downside as well.

"I would definitely agree that Gadar 1 was a game-changer for my career. How can it not be? How can one of India's most iconic films not change a person's career graph," Ameesha told IANS.

'Gadar: Ek Prem Katha' is the second most-watched Hindi film in India since the 1990s, with a length of two hours and fifty minutes. It went on to become the highest-grossing Hindi film since 'Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!' in 1994.

"Having said that after coming from Kaho Na Pyaar Hai the first film and then Gadar… summing it up to be even a bigger hit or a colossal giant or Aamir Khan sweetly calls it a monster o a success. It gave me two things. It was a game changer because suddenly it catapulted me as this performer. This college kid can play a mother which everyone doubted."

The 47-year-old actress said that not just back then, but also now, as the sequel approaches, many question her ability to play a mother on screen.

"They said 'you are too young too play a mother' and they doubt it even today for Gadar 2…. They said it back then and they are saying it today as well. The script is so powerful that I would play a mother again and again."

But everything excellent has a cost. Ameesha stated that the bar set by 'Gadar: Ek Prem Katha' was so high that the success of her later films paled in comparison.

"The flip side of that is that with the adulation, love and respect and the career rising the benchmark Gadar set was so high that even after I delivered successes in my other films like 'Humraaz', 'Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd', 'Race 2' or 'Bhool Bhulaiyaa' or pleasant films such 'Yeh Hai Jalwa' and successes of Telugu films Mahesh Babu, Pawan Kalyan, Jr NTR…"

"Somehow the benchmark that Gadar set was so high that people's expectations I think from all of us not only me, but Sunny, Anil Sharma ji were at such a high level that all our other work failed in comparison to that or rather paled in comparison," the actress said.

"So people thought that was it. That was the flipside to seeing such a colossal monster of a success."

Tara Singh comes to Lahore, Pakistan, in the middle of an anti-India "Crush India" campaign, to bring his son Charanjeet back. On August 11, the film will be released.