As Sunny Deol and director Rajkumar Santoshi prepare for the release of Batwara 1947 on August 14, the duo has clarified that they never had a personal rift despite not collaborating for nearly three decades.
Sunny dismissed reports of any fallout, stating that the delay was purely due to the logistical difficulties of getting their projects off the ground.
“Apart from Batwara 1947, we were planning to make Ashoka and Prithviraj Chauhan as well. But that time nobody wanted to make it with us as the producers felt that we were not saleable. But then Gadar 2 happened and was a big hit and gave us an opportunity and a lot of offers. Fortunately for us, Aamir wanted to do this film because he had heard the subject much earlier. And so, he took up the project, and I said let’s go ahead, let’s do it,” Sunny said.
Batwara 1947 is adapted from Asghar Wajahat’s celebrated play Jis Lahore Nai Vekhya O Jamya E Nai. The film explores the emotional scars of Partition through themes of displacement, loss and human relationships.
Santoshi has been developing the project for almost two decades after acquiring the adaptation rights in 2008. Over the years, actors including Sanjay Dutt, Anil Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan were considered for the lead before Sunny Deol eventually joined the film.
The filmmaker and actor maintained that the long gap in their collaborations was the result of difficulties in mounting ambitious projects, not any misunderstanding between them.
