Actor and model Muzammil Ibrahim, who made his Bollywood debut in Pooja Bhatt’s directorial Dhokha claimed that stars like Nana Patekar and Shah Rukh Khan said that he should have the best debut award over Ranbir Kapoor for Saawariya for his 2007 movie.
“I think Ranbir had debuted that year with Saawariya, and Neil Nitin Mukesh had come with Johnny Gaddar. Nana Patekar said that I deserved all the awards, but would not get because Ranbir would win. Even I thought I deserved an award for Dhokha, I 100% deserved the best debut award. I feel I was better than Ranbir in Saawariya. I love Ranbir as an actor now, but if you compare him in Saawariya and me in Dhokha, I was better. Irrfan Khan had told Mahesh Bhatt that very few could have pulled off that part in Dhokha,” said Muzammil to Siddharth Kannan.
He shared that he was not invited for the award shows and added, “I felt that awards shows were supposed to be like a ballot, like we see in Oscars. But here everyone knows who is winning! Only Ranbir is sitting there, so he will win. It is pre-decided. I felt so bad when Shah Rukh Khan sir called my name and even said that he thought that I deserved the award more on stage. As outsiders, we cannot even complain about these. We are not even invited, how will you feel? I felt like crying, I felt so bad. I had so many expectations. I had suffered a lot while shooting the film, and still gave a brilliant performance. I am a big champion of outside talent, the struggle we go through is immense. The industry should learn not to put down outsiders.”
Dhokha also featured Tulip Joshi, Anupam Kher, Gulshan Grover and Ashutosh Rana among others in key roles.