When Mahesh Bhatt axed a scene in Aashiqui because Deepak Tijori ‘overpowered’ Rahul Roy: ‘If you perform better than my hero…’

Deepak Tijori said that an incident on Aashiqui taught him never to perform a scene with the intention of overpowering the hero.

Rahul Roy Anu Agarwal Deepak Tijori on The Kapil Sharma Show

Aashiqui actors Rahul Roy, Anu Agarwal and Deepak Tijori will be the guests on The Kapil Sharma Show.

By: Entertainment Desk

New Delhi | Updated: February 23, 2023 11:21 AM IST

3 min read

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Actor Deepak Tijori recalled an anecdote about the film Aashiqui, when an ’emotional’ scene was axed by director Mahesh Bhatt because he overpowered the lead actor, Rahul Roy. Deepak said that the lesson he learnt from the incident was to never deliberately try to steal the limelight in a scene.

In the same interview, Deepak recalled when Mahesh Bhatt humorously told him and Rahul to decide among themselves who’ll play the lead in Aashiqui, but Deepak backed out because he already knew he’d been called to play the friend character. Recalling how impactful the filmmaker has been in his life and career, Deepak excitedly narrated another incident.

Also read | Deepak Tijori says he didn’t want to work with Shah Rukh Khan in Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa, got film’s climax changed: ‘Got a lot of gaalis for that’

He said, “When the film was being edited, we used to hang around and watch the process. There was a really emotional scene with me and Rahul. It was almost two minutes long. Bhatt saab initially had it in the first half, but then he moved it to the second half. Then he asked for it to be trimmed. Ultimately, it was cut down to 45 seconds. As actors, we’re greedy for screen time. But what could we say. Then, one day, Bhatt saab asked for the scene to be removed entirely.”

Deepak said that after summoning some courage, he asked the director why he’d decided to remove such an emotional scene from the film. Bhatt told him, “I tried, you saw, didn’t you? But if you perform better than my hero, the scene can’t be in the film. My hero is my hero. People have to love my hero for the film to be a hit.”

Deepak said that the filmmaker’s words became ’embedded’ in his mind, and in each of his subsequent movies, including Khiladi and Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar, he never performed with the intention of ‘doing better than the other guy’.

Aashiqui, released in 1990, made Rahul Roy and Anu Aggarwal overnight stars. A spiritual sequel, starring Shraddha Kapoor and Aditya Roy Kapur, was released in 2013.

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Aashiqui Movie deepak tijori Mahesh Bhatt Rahul Roy