Gulshan Grover reunites with Deepa Mehta after 17 years

Gulshan Grover, who played a sardar in Deepa Mehta's 1947--Earth, reunites with the Oscar-nominated director after 17 years in her first action thriller.
Gulshan Grover started out hating Deepa Mehta after she dropped him from her 1996 film, Fire. 'I was to play Nandita Das's husband. In fact, I was the one who introduced Nandita to Deepa at a dinner at my place. Then, suddenly, she was in and I was out,' he reminisces, adding that after this he swore never to work with either of them again.
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He only relented when Aamir Khan called, twice, to persuade him to play a sardar in Deepa's 1998 Partition drama, 1947: Earth. It was hard to refuse Aamir who's been a friend since they worked together in Love Love Love. Ajay Devgn was requested to adjust the dates Gulshan had allotted for Hindustan Ki Kasam so he could go back to 1947.And there, on the sets, he fell in love with the director who had entrusted the bad man with a rare positive role which got him raves from Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Anil Kapoor and Aamir himself.
Cut to 2015. Today, Gulshan is being appreciated for his performance in another Deepa Mehta film, Beeba Boys. He plays Robbie Grewal, a sardar again, but this one's a mafia don who's feeling threatened. 'When I showed Jackie (Shroff) the trailer, he was hooked onto one of my lines, `These boys are starting to irritate me' and kept repeating it all evening,' Gulshan laughs.
So is Robbie the modern-day Bad Man, the unforgettable Ram Lakhan character? Gulshan points out that Robbie is more of a drably dressed family man who plays golf and visits religious places but also deals in drugs and dabbles in crime. When he reported for the shoot in Canada having actually grown a beard this time, Deepa told him he'd have to spend his evenings with his reel life wife and daugh ter because she wanted them to look like a real family.
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Gulshan, who likes to be alone with his scenes after pack-up, tried to wriggle out of the 'assignment' but Deepa insisted they dine together at restau rants paid for by the pro duction. 'My wife, Monica Deol, who was Canada's first MTV VJ, is a celebrity of sorts, but for her and the other Indian-Canadian actors who played the Beeba boys and had to badmouth me, I was a Bollywood star with 400 films behind me. They were like fans who remembered every dialogue from Raja Ki Aayegi Baaraat to Ram Lakhan. Even my on screen daughter, whom I always called Chutki, and the sardarji who was on the sets to tie my turban for every take were starry-eyed,' reminisces Gulshan.
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The film is gearing up for a Toronto premiere and he is looking forward to a Punjabi Scarface. An action thriller is a new genre for Deepa but Gulshan is quick to point out that there's plenty of human drama and emotion amongst the bullets and blood. 'There was a time when I would fight with Deepa for real.Now, I'm fighting for her on reel. If my performance is any good, all the credit goes to her. She would brief me after pack-up with a four-page email and if the work was good, take me out for a drink,' he smiles.
Beeba means good in Punjabi. For every bebe (mother) her son is a beeba boy. Is he Deepa's beeba boy now? 'No, that's Randeep (Hooda) and the other boys. I'm her beeba friend who's moved from hating her to loving her,' he guffaws.
WATCH: Beeba Boys - Official Movie Trailer Release | Randeep Hooda | Gulshan Grover | 2015