Ameesha Patel says Yeh Hai Jalwa failed due to media's obsession with Salman Khan's hit-and-run case

Ameesha Patel and Salman Khan were seen together in David Dhawan's Yeh Hai Jalwa. It released in 2002, months before Salman's arrest in a hit-and-run case.

Actor Ameesha Patel recently talked about the failure of her film Yeh Hai Jalwa, co-starring Salman Khan. She was recently asked in an interview with Bollywood Hungama to name a film of hers that she thinks should have done well and she picked Yeh Hai Jalwa. She believes that the film did not get the right attention due to the frenzy around Salman Khan's hit-and-run case in the same year.

Ameesha Patel and Salman Khan starred in Yeh Hai Jalwa, which tanked badly.

Ameesha on failure of Yeh Hai Jalwa amid Salman's controversy

Ameesha said, “Yeh Hai Jalwa was one of David Dhawan's best films. Salman has never looked more handsome and the music and everything was good. But I think because earlier the media gave news the audiences were not so open about accepting some negative news about their favourite actors. Salman's accident had newly happened so Yeh Hai Jalwa got sidelined. Had the audience been open to it…that is one film that would have done really well.”

Salman Khan's hit-and-run case

Yeh Hai Jalwa was released on 3 July 2002. Later, on 28 September 2002, Salman was arrested for rash and negligent driving after his car ran into a bakery in Mumbai. The incident killed one who was sleeping on the pavement outside the bakery while three others were injured. Initially, charges of culpable homicide were laid against the actor. However, later it was dropped.

Failure of Zameer

Meanwhile, Ameesha also named another film which couldn't work despite high hopes. “There was a film called Zameer with Ajay Devgn where he is my professor. It was a remake of Tamil film, which was a national award-winning film. Unfortunately, the producer passed away when the film was about to release so it couldn't get to the audience correctly, the way it would have if the producer have been alive. I didn't think Mangal Panday needed to be written off so badly the way they wrote it off,” she said.

Ameesha recently returned to films with Gadar 2. Directed by Anil Sharma, the film reunited Ameesha and Sunny Deol as they reprised their iconic characters Tara Singh and Sakina from their hit film.