Despite the fact that Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s 2007 film Saawariya was a box office failure, Ranbir Kapoor was named the most promising debutant of the year. Ranbir still dominated discussions about the upcoming Bollywood stars even after Saawariya. Muzammil Ibrahim, a model-turned-actor, also made his debut at that time with Dhokha, starring Pooja Bhatt. He claimed in a recent interview that he was more worthy of recognition than Ranbir. He claimed that Ranbir was honoured at every award show.
In a chat with Siddharth Kannan on his YouTube channel, Muzammil said, “Ranbir Kapoor and Neil Nitin Mukesh made their debut in the same year with Saawariya and Johnny Gaddaar. When I met Nana Patekar, he told me that we knew you wouldn’t get the award. He said, ‘You gave the best performance but we knew that they were going to give the award to Ranbir Kapoor’. I knew that I deserved an award for Dhokha. All the ‘best debut’ awards should have been mine because I feel that I was better than Ranbir was in Saawariya. I love Ranbir now. He is an amazing actor, one of the only star kids I respect and look up to but if you compare Saawariya and Dhokha, I was better in Dhokha.”
Tulip Joshi featured in Dhokha, which was produced by Mahesh Bhatt and directed by Pooja Bhatt. According to Muzammil, he was first informed that he would co-star with Kangana Ranaut, but she was changed prior to the filming. He said that even Irrfan Khan praised his performance. “Irrfan Khan told Bhatt saab that very few actors can manage to achieve what he has done,” he recalled.
Muzammil said that while he was nominated for ‘best debut’ awards with Ranbir and Neil, some of the award shows did not even invite him. “I felt very bad that Shah Rukh Khan is taking my name on stage. He said, ‘I thought Muzammil deserved the award more.’ He said that on the stage. I think Ranbir also said something similar. Outsiders face such things and they can’t even complain. You are nominated, your film is nominated but you are not even invited to the award function. You can see Shah Rukh reading out your name on stage… I was crying, felt very bad. It felt like injustice. I had a lot of expectations. I was too young at the time,” he said.
