Mumbai, Feb 13: Harshvardhan Rane, who is enjoying a resurgence of sorts with the re-release of “Sanam Teri Kasam”, says while it took nine years for the film to do good numbers at the box office, he is happy he held on and fought the “long” fight.
The actor, however, regrets losing touch with the cast and crew of the 2016 Hindi romance drama after it didn’t do well at the box office.
Directed by Radhika Rao and Vinay Sapru, “Sanam Teri Kasam” was Rane’s Hindi film debut alongside Pakistani star Mawra Hocane. Since its re-release in theatres on February 7, the movie has raised Rs 27.96 crore nett, a marked improvement from its original release earnings of around Rs nine crore.
“It took so long for the film to do what we imagined that it’ll do… The one line that I’ve learned is to stay in the fight. You will be hurt, fall but you shouldn’t step out of the ring…
“Today is good, tomorrow might be different… I want to dedicate this moment to all my fellow actors who are out there, working on themselves every day… Just stay in the fight,” Rane told PTI in an interview here.
The popular dialogue “Picture abhi baaqi hai” from Farah Khan’s film “Om Shanti Om” starring Shah Rukh Khan sums up the trajectory of his journey, Rane said.
“SRK sir says ‘If it is not a happy ending then it is not an ending. Picture abhi baaqi hai’… All these dialogues of Farah Khan ma’am’s film feel real. I am now feeling these lines, these words are making a little more sense to me.”
Rane, who has since starred in films such as “Paltan”, “Taish”, “Haseen Dillruba”, and “Tara Vs Bilal”, said the failure of “Sanam Teri Kasam” came at a time when he was looking for “external validation”. “And when I didn’t get it, I was like that very stupid cricket player who stopped talking to everyone. I take that blame and it was my mistake because when my film did not work, I lost touch with the directors, the producer Deepak Mukut sir, my costume designer Rushi Manushi, and Ankita Dhar, the art director. All lovely people on the set, and all the actors I lost touch with. I made a mistake. I don’t know how to justify it. But I was in this place where I wanted to just be myself,” he added.
He is also not in touch with Hocane, who got married last week to Pakistani actor-singer Ameer Gilani.
Calling it his “fault” of not being in contact with his co-star, Rane said the new box office numbers of the film will be the “best wedding gift” for Hocane. “Sanam Teri Kasam” revolved around a tough ex-convict Inder (Rane) and a traditional librarian Saru (Hocane) who fall in love and get married but a tragedy changes their lives forever.
Videos of the 41-year-old actor surprising fans and getting mobbed by scores of women at one of the re-release screenings of the movie went viral on social media last week. Film personalities like John Abraham and Arjun Rampal also publicly congratulated him on finally getting his “due”.
Abraham had also produced his 2022 film “Tara Vs Bilal”. (PTI)