As the cult comedy film Gopi Kishan completes 25 years, actor Suniel Shetty walks down the memory lane and shares some interesting stories of working behind the scene. From setting new trend of oversized shirts that he flaunted as Gopi Kishan to his funny dance moves that were made into memes, remixes of its quirky song Haye Hukku and funny dialogue – Mere Do Do Baap. The 58-year-old actor hogged all the limelight and left everyone surprised with his double role of the cop and criminal.
“Before Gopi Kishan, nobody was willing to cast me in comedy. I would only get offers for action films. But when director Deepak Shivdasani offered me this role, I jumped on it. For me, it was a win-win situation because it opened the doors of comedy and I went on to do films such as Hera Pheri and others,” says Suniel adding, “It was one of the toughest and tedious films to shoot. To play a double role, I had to keep changing my look. Gopi’s innocence and the way he would pull his trousers up with both his hands were picked up from Director Rajiv Rai’s CFO.”
The 1994 release is still remembered for its famous one-liner Mere Do Do Baap. “I never imagined that such simple dialogues and situations would become so iconic. I wonder where the child actor is these days who shot to fame after that scene. He had a very naughty look but I don’t remember his name,” Suniel continues, “Whenever people would see me in public, they would say Mere Do Do Baap. Even Athiya, after watching the film, started calling me, “Mere Do Do Baap” and I used to keep telling her “No no Athiya… it is not funny”. She just loved it and keeps repeating (laughs).”
The actor recalls that this is one of the first few Bollywood films which kick start the trend of remake of a south film. “It is one of the first Bollywood remakes of Tamil film – Avasara Police 100 (1990). The Haye Hukku song and the oversized shirt and jeans, all became a trendsetter. Choreographer Chinni Prakash knew that I’m not a good dancer but still he made me look good in all the songs and match up to Lolo (Karishma Kapoor) who is a fantastic dancer. Some of the moves even went on to become the memes by the millennials. And the romantic song Batti Na Bujha became iconic and even now, when I close my eyes, I vividly remember how we shot the entire song,” Suniel shares.
Not many know that Suniel met with an accident and was limping in the entire song Chatri Naa Khol Barsat Mei, “That time I used to shoot 9pm to 5am for Mohra and 9am to 6pm Gopi Kishan. While shooting for Mohra, my knee got injured and I had a ligament tear. The doctors had advised me for bed rest and surgery later but I strapped a bandage on my knee and did the entire song limping.”
If Gopi Kishan would be remade in today’s time, Suniel says, “I would like Ranveer Singh or Varun Dhawan to play Gopi Kishan. They are brilliant actors and good with comedy.”
