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Rakesh Roshan reveals the chilling story behind being shot after Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai amid underworld threats.
Veteran filmmaker Rakesh Roshan with his superstar son Hrithik Roshan. (Image: rakesh_roshan9/Instagram)
For the Roshan family, January 2000 was a time of soaring highs and terrifying lows. Rakesh Roshan’s directorial Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai, which launched his son Hrithik Roshan, became a blockbuster after its release on January 14. Hrithik was instantly hailed as Bollywood’s next superstar. However, just a week later, tragedy struck.
Rakesh Roshan was shot in broad daylight outside his Mumbai office. Despite being hit by two bullets, the filmmaker miraculously drove himself to the hospital and survived. The attack was linked to the underworld, which had a powerful grip on the film industry during the late 1990s and early 2000s.
In a recent interview with Bollywood Hungama, Rakesh revealed the sinister reasons behind the shooting. The underworld had demanded Hrithik’s dates for a film financed by them, but Rakesh refused to comply. “I never gave any indication that Hrithik could do a film for them. I kept putting them off, saying Hrithik had no dates, which in any case, was the truth. They then asked me to take dates away from other producers and give it to them. This again, I refused to do,” he shared.
Rakesh admitted that standing up to the criminals came at a significant personal cost. “Once I had committed my son’s dates elsewhere, I refused to give in to arm-twisting tactics. With the kind of tension and fear that some of us had to bear, we couldn’t do anything creative, let alone make a film,” he said.
The incident left a profound impact on Hrithik, who revealed in an earlier interview with Simi Garewal that he contemplated quitting the film industry. He said he felt “directly or indirectly responsible” for his father’s shooting, as it stemmed from his rising stardom.
Despite the challenges, the Roshan family emerged stronger, with Rakesh and Hrithik going on to create more cinematic milestones together.
