Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra is a well-known Bollywood cinematographer who has brought us films like Rang De Basanti and Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, among others. In the midst of this, his 2009 film Delhi 6, which marked Abhishek Bachchan and Sonam Kapoor’s debut collaboration, generated a lot of hype.
Although generating a lot of buzz, Delhi 6 was a box office flop and garnered a lot of negative press. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra recently revealed the consequences of the Delhi 6 catastrophe in his autobiography, The Stranger in the Mirror.
According to leading daily portal Pinkvilla, He claimed that even though Delhi 6 received a positive reception at the box office, the excitement died off after the first weekend. Mehra alleged that he was heartbroken by the film’s movie box – office failure and drank himself to death.
He stated, “The box office debacle, and my own conflict with what ending was appropriate, shook me deeply. Was I capable of producing great cinema consistently? Was Rang De Basanti a fluke? I was going deeper and deeper into a dark hole. Unable to take it anymore, I drowned myself in alcohol. I wanted to drink myself to death — to sleep and never get up. I could see how much pain I was bringing to Bharathi (his wife) and our daughter, Bhairavi, who was now in her pre-teens. My son Vedant was observing and things were eroding between us. I remained careless and insensitive to the people I loved the most”.
Despite the fact that Delhi 6 did not make the box office, it did receive two National Awards: best production design and the Nargis Dutt Award for best feature film on national integration. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra is now making news for his recent film Toofaan, which stars Farhan Akhtar and Mrunal Thakur. The film recently received a digital distribution and has received a lot of positive feedback.
