Mahesh Bhatt & Avtar Gill Movies Together List — 14 Films

The shape of the work

The 1990s account for 86% of everything they made together. The 1980s belonged to Thikana; the 1990s to Swayam. Mahesh Bhatt directed every film; Avtar Gill acted in all of them. Strictly Hindi cinema — they never crossed industries together.

Partnership facts

• Mahesh Bhatt cast Avtar Gill in 'Daddy' (1989) after seeing him in a small role in 'Meri Jung' — but Gill almost lost the part because Bhatt thought he looked 'too nice' to play a negative character. Gill grew a beard overnight and showed up the next day. Bhatt laughed and said, 'Ab tu villain hai.'
• On the set of 'Swayam' (1991), Avtar Gill would deliberately flub his lines in the first take to make Mahesh Bhatt laugh. Bhatt, in turn, would rewrite Gill's dialogue on the spot — making the character more layered than what was in the script. The final film had almost 40% improvised lines between them.
• After 'Saatwan Aasman' (1992) flopped, Bhatt called Gill at 2 AM and said, 'We made a bad film. Let's never pretend it was good.' They didn't speak for six months. When they finally met again, Bhatt handed Gill a copy of 'Sir' (1993) script and said, 'This one we don't ruin.'
• The only reason Avtar Gill got the role of the corrupt cop in 'Naaraaz' (1994) was because Mahesh Bhatt insisted — the producer wanted a bigger name. That role later got Gill noticed by Ram Gopal Varma, who cast him in 'Satya' (1998). No 'Satya' without 'Naaraaz'.
• Avtar Gill once said in a 2003 interview: 'Bhatt sahab ne mujhe villain nahi banaya — usne mujhe villain ka insaan banaya. Har role ke peeche ek wajah hoti thi uske paas.' (Bhatt sir didn't just make me a villain — he made me the human behind the villain. Every role had a reason with him.)