“I was told ‘Aankhen’ will be a disaster,” reveals Vipul Shah as the heist-thriller clocks 19 years!

Filmmaker Vipul Amrutlal Shah captivated the audience with his edge-of-the-seat thriller ‘Aankhen’. As the film clocks 19 years of its release, the director revealed an interesting anecdote about the multi-starrer, which featured Amitabh Bachchan in a never-seen-before role along with Akshay Kumar, Arjun Rampal, Sushmita Sen and Paresh Rawal.

Speaking about the film, Vipul Shah reveals, “When ‘Aankhen’ was getting made, a lot of people from the industry felt that it will be a super flop, because Mr Amitabh Bachchan was playing a grey shade character for the first time, Akshay Kumar did not have a romantic track and all the three heroes were blind – Akshay, Arjun Rampal and Paresh Rawal. Sushmita Sen had a romantic track with Arjun who was a relatively new hero. These were the reasons given to me by various people, who told me that if I were to go with this film, it would be a supreme disaster. I was warned that with such a big star cast if my film doesn’t do well, then my career as a filmmaker would be over. I did not listen to any of them because I had nothing to lose. I just wanted to make a film I believed in, and I did not even think about success or failure at that time because I just wanted to make the film the way I saw it.”

And when ‘Aankhen’ hit the screens in 2002, the film emerged as a massive success. All the actors were lauded for their unique performances. “It was amazing to see the way people were reacting to the movie. I think everyone was surprised, even the pandits who were forecasting it to be a flop, were in for a surprise. The movie’s success made my belief stronger that you should just go ahead and experiment; some of them will work, some of them may not. But unless and until you keep experimenting, you are not going to break new grounds. With ‘Aankhen’, we broke a lot of new grounds in Hindi cinema and it’s just one of those films which has been, with every passing year, become bigger and bigger for audience and their love. I am very happy because today is the release of my first film and it is always going to be a very important day of my life,” concludes the filmmaker.

Currently, Vipul Shah is working on churning out yet another ambitious movie. He will be calling the shots for ‘Sanak’, which is an intense and emotional action film.