Fardeen Khan says he didn’t deserve Best Debut Filmfare Award for Prem Aggan, recalls people ‘took their monies back’

Actor Fardeen Khan, who is all set to make a comeback in Bollywood with horror drama Visfot, did his first interview in 11 Talking about his career, movies, his father, and his sabbatical. In the conversation, he spoke at length about his debut film Prem Aggan for which he had won the Filmfare award for Best Debut. However, tough times began for him post the film and he admitted that he didn’t deserve the award.

“Firstly, I don’t think I deserve this award, to be honest. It was a culture back then that people got awards. I look at my work and I definitely didn’t deserve that. The film didn’t work. I didn’t work. When I look back, I thought I was horrible. I sat at home for the whole year. I had no work. The films I had signed before that, people took their monies back. I had spent some monies that I had been given. I had to return those monies. My father was very clear with me that ‘Son, we tried. We failed.’ He said, ‘I will give you a roof over your head and food for one year.’ He gave been Rs. 50,000 a month and told me that ‘Now, you are going to do it on your own,”

Fardeen Khan admitted that his father Feroze Khan was a strict person. He said, “So he was very very strict, my dad. Because he was a completely self-made man and he just didn’t believe in protecting you, especially in terms of economic reality. That whole year went by, I went into a bit of a shell for some time. The reviews were awful, nobody wanted to work with me. Then I kind of picked myself up, started working out, coming out with a plan to meet people and go out there. I continued working on my Hindi which was very very bad for my first film.”

“As luck would have it, Ram Gopal Varma was told about me by two people and I get a random call at about 10:30 at night,” adding, “I said ‘It’s got to be a joke’. I am a huge fan of Ram Gopal Varma. I had seen Satya, Rangeela and my dream would be to work with this man.” He recalled that a common friend of both of them connected them on call and they spoke for about 10 minutes or so. They met that very night and talked for like 15 minutes or so before RGV told him that they will work together. They indeed did work on Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya which starred Urmila Matondkar. “I was in deep waters after Prem Aggan. So that gave me a chance to resurrect myself to whatever degree I did in Jungle. Ofcourse, it was a different kind of movie compared to what I had done with Prem Aggan. I probably could relate to it more; more contemporary. Ram Gopal Varma was a different generation of filmmakers. It worked out very well. We did two more films together.”