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"Our heroines are always so made-up, it's repulsive. Very few take care of their body odour. Most of them are sweaty and stink so much that you literally have to put a handkerchief to your nose," says Mukul Dev. He started with Mahesh Bhatt's tele-serial 'Mumkin' and was chosen to play the cop-boyfriend of Sushmita Sen in Bhatt's 'Dastak' as well as the hero of ABCL's 'Naam Kya Hai'. 'Dastak' bombed and ABCL's 'Naam Kya Hai' lies unsold even after completion. The industry seemed to write him off. Mukul remains on the fringes of the industry.
He was into some good projects. Umesh Mehra's Dilip Kumar-Rekha starrer 'Qila' and N Chandra's Nana Patekar-Madhuri Dixit film 'Wajood'. The strategy was sound. Anil Kapoor had made his presence felt by standing up to Dilip Kumar in 'Mashaal', and Mukul would do the same. Unfortunately, this was 14 years too late. Though Mukul believed, "People would not come to see my solo film but Dilip Kumar can attract the crowds to the theatres," viewers kept away. 'Qila' bombed. 'Wajood' sank without a trace. So did 'Mere Do Anmol Ratan'.
He lost some goodwill and was even ejected from Kundan Shah's 'Friends' when he bunked the shoot as his `wife was not well`, but was discovered working for someone else instead. Despite being tactless (read the above quote, again!) he is still around. Partly because he did what is considered a mistake for an actor whose first film is a hit: he had signed too many films during 'Dastak' days and managed to deliver good performances, even stand up and look unflinchingly into the eyes of Dilip Kumar. He even replaced Arshad Warsi, who did not want to do Mehul Kumar's 'Kohram' with Amitabh and Nana Patekar. 'Kohram', though didn't help. Nor did Vivek Vaswani's 'Sar Aankhon Par'.
Aziz Mirza's 'Jai Surya' with Nana Patekar sounds promising but is a long way from completion. Films like 'Ganga Jamuna' with Sharad Kapoor (the 'Dastak' combo) 'Adhikar', 'Iski Topi Uske Sar', 'Dada Thakur', 'Duniya Meri Jeb Mein', 'Hum Tum Aur Woh', 'Jaan Ki Baazi', 'Khafa' and 'Mere Apne' are some of his forthcoming projects.
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