Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra on His Breakdown Post Delhi-6 Failure: 'I Wanted to Drink Myself to Death'

Success and failure are a part of a career. There are some who learn from their failures and move on, others are too hard on themselves like director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, who revealed that he had a tough time overcoming the failure of his film Delhi-6. He shared how he once was in a dark place for six months post the release of the film Delhi-6.

Bollywood actors Abhishek Bachchan and Sonam Kapoor essayed the lead role in the film, which was released in 2009. In his autobiography, titled The Stranger in the Mirror, the director has shared his heart-wrenching experience after the release of the film. He penned that after the film’s release, the audience had disappeared from theatres, and he also questioned the box office debacle. The failure of the film had affected him badly, but as soon as the death threats started coming in, he went ‘deeper and deeper into a dark hole.’

“Unable to take it anymore, I drowned myself in alcohol,” he said, and added, “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.”

However, there is light at the end of each tunnel, and the director was able to find it as well. Basking in the success of OTT released Farhan Akhtar and Mrunal Thakur-starrer Toofaan, Rakeysh considers himself fortunate that he was able to come out of that phase. For the unknown, he has given hits like ‘Rang De Basanti’ and ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.’ Toofan was his second outing with Farhan and the director told ETimes that around 16 years back, he had offered the actor a role in Rang De Basanti too.

“I have always seen an actor in Farhan and I did offer him a role in ‘Rang De Basanti’, nearly 16 years ago. At that time, he was amused and it didn’t occur to him that he will be acting one day,” he added.

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