MF Husain threw his paintbrush at the screen after watching Sooraj Barjatya’s biggest flop; questioned him, ‘What have you done?’ | Bollywood News

Sooraj Barjatya enjoyed a lot of success in the early days of his career when he made Maine Pyar Kiya, Hum Aapke Hain Koun and Hum Saath Saath Hain. But, his fourth film, Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon, tanked as soon as it released and his loyal fans were quite upset with him for this film starring Kareena Kapoor, Hrithik Roshan and Abhishek Bachchan. In an earlier interview, Sooraj said that he did not feel confident while making this film as he was constantly asking his assants if they approved of his choices. After the film’s release, art MF Husain called Sooraj and told him that he should stick to his ethos while making his films instead of conducting such experiments.
In a chat shared on the YouTube channel Game Changers, Sooraj said that this film was his “biggest lesson.” He shared that even though Hum Saath Saath Hain was a massive success, it only did 60 percent of Hum Aapke Hain Koun’s business. Sooraj recalled that during this phase, filmmakers like Karan Johar and Aditya Chopra were making films that also appealed to the overseas audience as they were shot in international locations, and so, he decided to do the same. “I thought I might as well go with the times,” he said.
Sooraj acknowledged that he had the most popular stars of the time, had a massive budget and all the resources but he knew that something wasn’t right. “It was on that film that when I visited the set, I would ask the assant if things were okay. I would ask them if this worked for their generation. As a director, if I am asking someone else that if this will work or not… I thought that was the biggest learning for me,” he said.
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Sooraj said that this had never happened before and he realised something was off because he “I wanted to be someone that I was not.” He recalled that even his father told him that he shouldn’t be making this film as it did require such a huge budget. He then recalled one of the harshest calls he got after the release of the film. He shared, “MF Husain was a great fan of Hum Aapke Hain Koun. He called me after this and he said, ‘What have you made? Brush phenk ke aaya hu Liberty pe (I threw my brush at the screen in Liberty)’.”
As Sooraj was starting to feel embarrassed, MF Husain asked him to visualise his core ethos. “He said, ‘Close your eyes and visualise that there’s party at your house. What is everyone wearing?’ I said everyone is wearing sarees and before I could finish, he said, ‘then why are you making all of this?’ He said ‘we see all of this in other people’s films. We see your films for their purity. We wants tears of happiness’. I still remember his words.”