Called It A “Mistake”, Wanted It Erased! Indian Stars Who Tore Into Their Own Films
From Saif Ali Khan’s ‘Humshakals’ to Shahid Kapoor’s ‘Shaandaar’ and Nayanthara’s ‘Ghajini’, these Indian stars publicly opened up about films they regretted choosing.
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Every actor has a film they would rather leave off the highlight reel. Most settle for saying it did not work. A few go further: they call their choice a mistake, refuse to promote the finished film or wish they could erase it from their career altogether. Sometimes the problem was the script; sometimes the film that reached theatres barely resembled the one they had agreed to make. And occasionally, even a box-office hit left its actors disappointed.
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These Indian stars publicly aired their misgivings, offering a glimpse behind the promotional smiles – although, as some later interviews reveal, regret does not always stay fixed.
1. Saif Ali Khan - Humshakals
Director: Sajid Khan | Released: June 20, 2014
Three versions each of Saif Ali Khan, Riteish Deshmukh and Ram Kapoor should have meant nine times the fun. For Saif, it became a lesson in choosing a comedy that matched neither his taste nor his strengths. Soon after ‘Humshakals’ came out, he told Mumbai Mirror that he had hoped the film would broaden his audience, but felt uncomfortable with the material and largely surrendered to the director’s vision. Watching the finished film, he wondered what he was doing in it. He called it regressive and said he would not repeat the mistake.
His view has gained some nuance with time. In a September 2026 interview, Saif said he believed he had been miscast and took responsibility for accepting the part. He also said he stood by the film and Sajid Khan. His initial regret was real, as is his later refusal to put all the blame on the director.
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2. Ajay Devgn - Rascals
Director: David Dhawan | Released: October 6, 2011
The comedy paired Ajay Devgn and Sanjay Dutt as rival conmen, with Kangana Ranaut caught in their games. Ajay’s objection went beyond how the film performed: its adult humour did not fit the family audience he wanted to make films for. At the India Today Mind Rocks Youth Summit in 2012, he explicitly said he regretted doing ‘Rascals’ and called it probably the only vulgar film he had made.
Five years later, his answer had not softened. Ajay Devgn said viewers used to taking their children to ‘Golmaal’ and ‘Singham’ did not expect the double entendres in ‘Rascals’. He described it as the mistake that made him decide against films his audience could not comfortably watch with family.
3. Shahid Kapoor - Shaandaar
Director: Vikas Bahl | Released: October 22, 2015
An extravagant destination wedding, two people who cannot sleep and Shahid Kapoor opposite Alia Bhatt: ‘Shaandaar’ had the ingredients of a dreamy romance. Shahid would rather wake up from it. Asked on Famously Filmfare to name films he wished he had not done, he put ‘Shaandaar’ first. He later went further, saying he would erase it from his career trajectory if he could.
His co-star did not share that verdict. Alia said she was unhappy about how ‘Shaandaar’ performed but did not regret making it.
4. Adil Hussain - Kabir Singh
Director: Sandeep Reddy Vanga | Released: June 21, 2019
Adil Hussain played the dean who confronts Shahid Kapoor’s troubled surgeon in the Hindi remake of ‘Arjun Reddy’. He liked his own scene. Then he sat down to watch the rest of the film. Adil told the AP Podcast that he had accepted the part without reading the full screenplay or watching the Telugu original. About 20 minutes into a theatrical screening, he walked out. He called ‘Kabir Singh’ the only film he regretted doing.
His objection was to what he felt the film celebrated. Adil Hussain argued that its treatment of violence and misogyny was harmful. In a later interview, he again took responsibility for not reading the script and explained why he felt it mattered to speak publicly about his regret.
5. Naseeruddin Shah - The Blueberry Hunt
Director: Anup Kurian | Released theatrically: April 8, 2016
Naseeruddin Shah did not wait for a disappointing opening weekend to give his verdict. In a 2011 interview, years before the film finally reached Indian theatres, he said he regretted taking the role because it had forced him to turn down a part in Shoaib Mansoor’s ‘Bol’. He called ‘The Blueberry Hunt’ a “piece of junk” and said it was the one film he wished he had not done.
The release gap is central to the story. The thriller, which also featured Aahana Kumra and Vipin Sharma, had been made around 2011 but opened theatrically only in April 2016. Naseer’s assessment therefore predates its theatrical release by several years.
6. Bipasha Basu - Humshakals
Director: Sajid Khan | Released: June 20, 2014
Saif was not the only cast member unhappy with ‘Humshakals’. Bipasha Basu stayed away from its promotions, but her reasons were specific to her experience. In a Rediff interview, she called it the worst experience of her life, said she had only about six minutes of screen time and described signing the project as a wrong call. Long waits on set and the way her part turned out had left her frustrated.
Bipasha also drew a line between her experience and the work of the wider crew: she said she did not want to pull down a film made with many people’s effort and money. Her refusal to promote it was, in her account, a decision to distance herself from a project to which she felt she had little to contribute.
7. Ram Charan - Zanjeer
Director: Apoorva Lakhia | Released: September 6, 2013
Taking over a character identified with Amitabh Bachchan was an imposing way for Ram Charan to make his Hindi film debut. The new ‘Zanjeer’, also starring Priyanka Chopra and Sanjay Dutt and shot in Telugu as ‘Thoofan’, failed to deliver the breakthrough it promised. Ram Charan’s feelings about it have changed publicly: speaking to The Telegraph soon after its release, he said he was upset by the failure and thought the adaptation’s script and screenplay had misfired, but explicitly said he did not regret doing the film.
During a later appearance on Unstoppable with NBK, however, he reportedly named ‘Zanjeer’ as a professional regret. That later admission earns it a place here, with the earlier interview kept in view: his response in 2013 was considerably more forgiving.
8. Katrina Kaif - Boom
Director: Kaizad Gustad | Released: September 19, 2003
Katrina Kaif’s screen debut put her in an ensemble with Amitabh Bachchan, Jackie Shroff, Gulshan Grover, Madhu Sapre and Padma Lakshmi. It was also a kind of project she later said she would not take again. In a contemporaneous account carried by The Times of India, Katrina said that, had she understood Indian cultural expectations when she signed ‘Boom’, she would not have done it. She added that she did not want filmmakers to expect similar material from her in future.
There is a later qualification. Asked by Filmfare in 2013 to name a film she regretted doing, Katrina answered, “None”. Her early statement establishes that she would have made a different decision about ‘Boom’.
9. Abhay Deol - Aisha
Director: Rajshree Ojha | Released: August 6, 2010
Some viewers remember Aisha for Sonam Kapoor’s Delhi socialite, its matchmaking plot and its wardrobe. Abhay Deol remembered the clothes a little too well. In a 2010 interview with Bombay Times, he said he had realised during filming that the project was becoming more about fashion than acting. He was unhappy with how it handled its stated inspiration, Jane Austen’s ‘Emma’, and said he would never again be part of a film like ‘Aisha’.
That is a sharp public criticism, though Abhay did not use the exact words “I regret doing Aisha” in that interview. In 2016, when asked about the controversy his comments had caused, he said he did not regret past mistakes and would still speak his mind.
10. Nayanthara - ‘Ghajini’
Director: A.R. Murugadoss | Released: September 29, 2005
A blockbuster on an actor’s filmography does not automatically mean happy memories. Nayanthara appeared alongside Suriya and Asin in the Tamil original of ‘Ghajini’, but later described accepting her role as the “worst decision” she had made. Her explanation was pointed: “My role did not shape up the way it was narrated to me”. She also expressed dissatisfaction with how she was photographed, while saying she considered the experience a lesson. For Nayanthara, the disappointment lay in how her role turned out, even as the film enjoyed commercial success.
11. Rishi Kapoor - ‘Besharam’
Director: Abhinav Kashyap | Released: October 2, 2013
Putting Ranbir Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Kapoor in the same film sounded like a casting coup. Rishi’s assessment afterwards was considerably less celebratory. ‘Besharam’, which also starred Pallavi Sharda, failed to live up to his expectations. In an April 2014 interview, he said: “It was bloody disappointing. Neetu, Ranbir and I are all sorry we did that film”. Rishi explained that he had expected an entertaining movie and felt it had gone badly wrong. Still, he did not shut the door on another collaboration: he was willing to work with Abhinav Kashyap again if a better script came along.
12. Richa Chadha - ‘Sarbjit’
Director: Omung Kumar | Released: May 20, 2016
Sometimes an actor needs distance from a film before delivering their bluntest verdict. Richa Chadha played Sukhpreet, Sarabjit Singh’s wife, alongside Randeep Hooda and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in ‘Sarbjit’. Speaking to IANS in May 2018, she said: “I felt misused. I regretted choosing the film.” Her comments reflected her desire to choose projects that gave her meaningful opportunities to act and leave an impression.
Her position had changed since an earlier 2016 interview, when she said she had no regrets about the film despite crucial scenes being cut. At the time, she explained that her scenes and those featuring Darshan Kumar had suffered particularly in the edit, but accepted that the film took priority over an individual actor. By 2018, her assessment was much less forgiving – a reminder that an actor’s verdict can evolve long after release day.
Bonus: Emraan Hashmi - The Film He Will Not Name
Here is the one entry that doesn’t have a film title, release date or director, and that is precisely the point. In a 2024 interview, Emraan Hashmi said he had signed a project with a strong script and good intentions, only to find the finished film so poor that even its trailer made him cringe. He said he could not bring himself to watch it and that it was not the film he had agreed to make.
Emraan declined to name it because other creative people had worked on it. Filmography detectives can make their guesses, but attaching any title to this confession would turn his carefully unnamed regret into a claim he has never made.
