Rakesh is remembered for a great film like ‘Rang De Basanti’. Apart from this, he also directed films like Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, Ask, Toofan, Delhi 6, Teen The Bhai, Fanney Khan, Mere Pyare Prime Minister and Mirzya.
Debut as a director with ‘Aks’- Rakesh Omprakash Mehra, who is 61 years old, started his career in Bollywood with the film ‘Aks’ in the year 2001. In this film, he worked with veterans like Amitabh Bachchan, Raveena Tandon and Manoj Bajpayee.
Rakesh Omprakash Mehra got his real and special identity from ‘Rang De Basanti’. But the failure of a film that came after this film left him shattered. He was deeply shocked when his film flopped. He had even decided to commit suicide.
![Rakesh Omprakash Mehra had high hopes from his film 'Delhi 6'. This film was released in the year 2009. Initially, its performance at the box office was excellent. But later the film stopped getting viewers. In such a situation, Rakesh was shocked. Abhishek Bachchan and Sonam Kapoor played important roles in this film.](https://feeds.abplive.com/onecms/images/uploaded-images/2024/07/07/5f46ae7d9dcb7edd0cfd06b56cd6e4eca2d42.jpg?impolicy=abp_cdn&imwidth=720)
Rakesh Omprakash Mehra had high hopes from his film ‘Delhi 6’. This film was released in the year 2009. Initially, its performance at the box office was excellent. But later the film stopped getting viewers. In such a situation, Rakesh was shocked. Abhishek Bachchan and Sonam Kapoor played important roles in this film.
In shock of the film’s failure, Rakesh started drinking heavily. He wanted to kill himself with alcohol. This is also mentioned in his autobiography ‘The Stranger in the Mirror’.
Rakesh’s autobiography says that the film opened on Friday, 20 February 2009 with a great reaction. We did a business of more than 40 crores by Sunday. Then Monday came and the audience disappeared from the theatres and I was devastated.
![The box office debacle and my own struggle with it left me shaken. I began to wonder if I was capable of making consistently good cinema or not? Was Rang De Basanti a sham?](https://feeds.abplive.com/onecms/images/uploaded-images/2024/07/07/b647b2b2227b3ddad1f6bb9a6417fd4e1894f.jpg?impolicy=abp_cdn&imwidth=720)
The box office debacle and my own struggle with it left me shaken. I began to wonder if I was capable of making consistently good cinema or not? Was Rang De Basanti a sham?
Although Rakesh was devastated by the failure of Delhi 6, this film holds a special place in his career. The film also made it to the Venice Film Festival. Rakesh had said in one of his interviews that Delhi 6 made it to the Venice Film Festival and fulfilled the incompleteness within me.
Published at : 07 Jul 2024 04:05 PM (IST)