Sangeeta Yadav (HINDUSTAN TIMES; December 2, 2019)

From setting trends of oversized shirts to funny dialogues and dance moves that were later made into memes, Suniel Shetty hogged all the limelight with his double role as a cop and a criminal in Gopi Kishan — the cult comedy that completes silver jubilee today.

Walking down memory lane, the 58-year-old says, “Before Gopi Kishan, nobody was willing to cast me in comedies. I’d only get action film offers. So, when director Deepak Shivdasani offered me the role, I jumped on it. It opened the doors of comedy for me and I went on to do films like Hera Pheri.”

Suniel further adds, “It was one of the toughest films to shoot. I had to keep changing my look for the double role. I picked up Gopi’s way of pulling his trousers from Director Rajiv Rai’s CFO.”

The film is remembered for its famous one-liner, Mere Do Do Baap. “I never imagined that such simple dialogues would become so iconic. I wonder what the child actor, who mouthed the lines is doing these days,” he says, adding, “Even Athiya, after watching the film, started saying, ‘Mere Do Do Baap’ and I used to tell her, ‘No, no Athiya… it’s not funny.’ She loved repeating it (laughs).”

Suniel says that the 1994 film was one of the first few to begin the trend of remake of movies down South. “It’s one of the first Bollywood films remade from Tamil films. (Gopi Kishan is a remake of the 1990 Tamil film Avasara Police 100). The Haye Hukku song with jeans and oversized shirt became a trendsetter. Choreographer Chinni Prakash knew that I’m not a good dancer, but still he made me match up to Lolo’s (Karisma Kapoor) moves. Some of them have now become memes,” says Suniel.

Not many know that Suniel met with an accident and was limping in the song Chatri Naa Khol Barsat Mei, “That time I used to shoot from 9 pm to 5 am for Mohra and 9 am to 6 pm for Gopi Kishan. While shooting for Mohra, I had a ligament tear. The doctors had advised me bed rest and surgery, but I strapped a bandage on my knee and did the entire song.”

And, if the film is remade now, who would Suniel want to play his role? He replies, “Ranveer Singh or Varun Dhawan. They are brilliant.”