25 Years of Sirf Tum EXCLUSIVE: “For Sushmita Sen’s role, main POORI industry ghooma tha. I had approached Pooja Batra, Raveena Tandon, Deepti Bhatnagar, etc.”– Boney Kapoor

By Fenil Seta -

June 5, 2024 - 12:46 PM IST

Sirf Tum (1999), starring Sanjay Kapoor, Priya Gill and Sushmita Sen, completed 25 years on June 4. The film is remembered for its unusual plot and chartbuster songs and it was also a decent success at the box office. On Sirf Tum’s 25th anniversary, Bollywood Hungama exclusively spoke with producer Boney Kapoor about the film and a lot more.

25 Years of Sirf Tum EXCLUSIVE: “For Sushmita Sen’s role, main POORI industry ghooma tha. I had approached Pooja Batra, Raveena Tandon, Deepti Bhatnagar, etc.”– Boney Kapoor

Sanjay Kapoor has often said that it was his “bad luck” that Sirf Tum worked and it encouraged him to look for more acting assignments…
I don’t know what he spoke but Sanjay had worked very earnestly in Sirf Tum. Priya Gill and Sushmita Sen had also done well. Jackie Shroff was superb. The song ‘Dilbar Dilbar’ is a hit even today. We shot that song in Houston, USA. There’s an interesting story about how I got to know about the locations.

Please share…
We were shooting for Pukar (2000) and I was talking to the various action directors in the USA. One action director had come with a showreel. In this showreel, I saw this place with a waterfall, a skyscraper with a Gothic structure on the top, etc. I suggested to Sanjay to shoot the song in these places. In the original version, Kadhal Kottai (1995), this song was filmed in Rajasthan.

To our bad luck, the director Agathiyan and the cinematographer Thangar Bachan didn’t get the visa. Farah Khan was doing the songs for Pukar in the USA. She shot ‘Dilbar’. Ashok Mehta, the DOP of Pukar, stepped in too. The song was filmed in 3 days.

The song is famous even today…
Yes. Ek din Bhushan Kumar se hisaab lunga iska! ‘Dilbar Dilbar’ has been remixed multiple times and so has ‘Hawa Hawaai’ from our other film, Mr India (1987).

The film has a strong repeat value. The climax is nail-biting…
In fact, I had told the director that in the climax, the audience should get so involved that they should put their feet up in the seats, fearing that their legs would get wet in the rain! We had rain machines and a number of fire engines for that scene in Delhi. We showed real rainfall as well in a few shots. A lot of hard work went for that scene.

In fact, the film originally was 3 ½ hours long. I had permanent distributors and I showed this version to them. They didn’t have faith in the product while I was confident. They all said, ‘Boney saab, the money which we gave you, you can keep it. We’ll adjust it in the next film. But we won’t release the film on MG (minimum guarantee)’! Hence, I released the film all over India on my account. It turned out to be a big money spinner for me. In fact, my partners, Nitin Manmohan, Sunil Manchanda and Gautam Kumar, who funded the film, also left me! I returned the money to them.

Why did they leave?
This is because Sanjay Kapoor’s earlier films had failed. Also, Mukul Anand, who was also associated with them, had passed away. This was the reason they gave me for exiting from the project.

Were Sanjay Kapoor and Priya Gill the original choices?
Yes, Sanjay and Priya were always the original choices. For Sushmita’s role, main poori industry ghooma tha! I approached Pooja Batra, Raveena Tandon, Deepti Bhatnagar etc. I don’t even remember how many girls I had approached.

It’s so fascinating to know that in June 1999, Biwi No 1, Sirf Tum and Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam were all running together in cinemas…
In those days, the best time for films to release was June, July and August. Because there is no exam tension in this period. Schools have just restarted. There are also many festivals and holidays in that period, especially in August.

Also Read: Boney Kapoor reveals living in Raj Kapoor’s servant quarters after his father was “thrown out” of jobs: “My father was in debt. We were in a sh**hole”