New Delhi: This year's celebrations for actor Bobby Deol's 55th birthday would be more extravagant than ever, given the success of Sandeep Reddy Vanga's Animal. Even if the actor has a number of excellent films to his name, Barsaat, his first feature, is still in people's memories. Although the actor created a number of fashion and dance trends with the movie, the release of the picture did not go as planned. Bobby mentioned that the movie, which was originally slated to be directed by Shekhar Kapur, was delayed for four years after the director left the project.
Shekhar abandoned the filming 27 days after it started since he was offered the chance to direct Bandit Queen at the time. Bobby claimed that he was annoyed by the script's modifications. The actor was so negatively impacted by the delay that his superstar father Dharmendra had to intervene and speak with Shekhar.
Speaking about the film at Jagran Film Festival, Bobby said, "I started shooting for the film very early and Shekhar Kapur was the director. We shot for the film for 27 days. He then got an offer from Hollywood to make Bandit Queen. Shekhar said, ‘I will do Bandit Queen and come back to do Barsaat,’ But my father told him that he didn’t want to delay it. He told Shekhar, ‘You go do your film, I will find somebody else.’ And I think Rajkumar Santoshi was waiting to direct my film. I got lucky with him.”
But after a new director was brought on board, the script underwent a number of modifications that left him feeling confused and worn out. "I was 26 when my film was released, I was 22 when I started shooting for it. After Shekhar left I had to wait for a year or so for the shooting to start again. Even then it took two years to make. The script kept changing. I took up running, playing drums, bike riding and other things to fit into different character requirements according to the changes in the script. It was frustrating,” he said.
The movie, in which Twinkle Khanna costarred, was filmed in a number of domestic and foreign locales, including London, Manali, and Italy. Bobby engages in combat with a tiger in one of the sequences. The actor disclosed that the crew used a trained Siberian tiger and fastened a piece of meat to the actor's shoulder to achieve the ideal shot.
Recalling the action sequence during an interview with Mashable India, Bobby said, "We shot it in Italy. We learnt there was someone who had trained Siberian tigers. He had a small zoo of his own. I did the fight with the tiger there. They had just trimmed his nails. They would have a piece of meat close to my neck so the tiger jumps on you and goes for the meat. I had to stop him with my hand. His paws were so heavy that when he would get tired, he would place his paws on me and I would get pushed down.”
Along with numerous more films, Bobby's career selections include Gupt: The Hidden Truth, Soldier, Dillagi, Ajnabi, and many more. It's interesting to note that the actor now appears eager to investigate southern film industry. Bobby will appear in the upcoming Telugu films Nandamuri Balakrishna and Hari Hara Veeru Mallu, as well as Suriya's Tamil historical drama Kanguva.