When Suniel Shetty told his mother-in-law that he might “beat up” JP Dutta on Border sets

Border not only remains one of Suniel Shetty’s best films but also one of his best performances. But it might come as a major surprise to his fans that the actor was hell-bent on not doing the film and was avoiding the film’s director JP Dutta for a long time. He revealed this in the latest episode of the podcast The Ranveer Show.

Shetty essayed the real life character Bhairon Singh Rathore, a BSF (Border Security Force) officer who played a major role in the 1971 Indo-Pak war, in the movie. The actor revealed on the podcast that he didn’t want to work with Dutta as he had heard about his short temper. “I had heard a lot of stories about JP Dutta, that he gets angry and abuses his actors,” said Shetty.

Dutta didn’t give up even after Shetty’s plain refusal. In fact, the filmmaker approached Shetty’s mother-in-law in order to persuade him to do the film. “When he came to me with Border, I refused to sign it. He made me hear the subject. I respected him but then I said no. He couldn’t understand why I had said no to that character. That struggle went on for 2-3 months and he was hell-bent on me doing that character. He got to (producer) Bharat Shah, who lived in my mother-in-law’s building, and he then went to my mother-in-law. It was her who convinced me to do Border,” revealed Shetty.

Although Shetty signed the film, he feared he might “beat up” Dutta. “I told mom that he is hot-headed and he might say things. I am hot-headed too. I might use my arm for certain things. So, I don’t want to bash up with JP Dutta and beat him up on the set. She told him that and JP said, ‘I only get upset when people don’t give their 100 per cent.’”

But Shetty’s experience was the opposite of what he feared and he was left in awe of Dutta. “After working with him in Border, I realised he is in love with the Indian forces, otherwise he would have been a commercial director. He would have done 100 films because there were 100 producers chasing him. But he only did what he believed in. So it was a life lesson from a man like that. For me, he is my guru today, master craftsman, and phenomenal human being,” he said.

Border also starred Sunny Deol, Jackie Shroff, Akshaye Khanna, Pooja Bhatt, Puneet Issar and Kulbhushan Kharbanda, among others.

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