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Mumbai: Bollywood has witnessed several famous fallouts, but the cold war between Sunny Deol and Shah Rukh Khan remains one of the industry’s most discussed chapters. More than three decades after Darr, Sunny has once again opened up about what went wrong between the two actors.

During a recent conversation with Shubhankar Mishra, Sunny revisited the tension that erupted while shooting the 1993 Yash Chopra directorial. He maintained that he never felt professionally threatened, but admitted that insecurity among actors can often spoil the atmosphere on a film set.

“I am not an insecure person,” Sunny said, adding that actors sometimes do unnecessary things because of their insecurities and that is when “vibes galat ho jaati hain.”

However, Sunny did not directly call Shah Rukh insecure.

What happened on the sets of Darr?

In Darr, Sunny played naval commando Sunil, while Shah Rukh portrayed Rahul, an obsessive stalker who became the film’s most talked-about character.

Sunny’s major disagreement reportedly revolved around the climax in which Rahul manages to stab Sunil during a face-to-face confrontation. The actor felt it made little sense for a trained commando to be overpowered so easily.

The argument with Yash Chopra became so heated that Sunny pushed his hands into his pockets and accidentally ripped his jeans in anger. Looking back at the incident, he said he was not angry with anyone else but with himself. The actor had previously said that he was also unhappy about the film glorifying its villain.

The controversy eventually spilled beyond the film, with Sunny and Shah Rukh reportedly not speaking to each other for 16 years. Sunny had earlier clarified that the silence was not entirely deliberate, explaining that he had distanced himself and rarely socialised.

Is Shah Rukh Khan his friend today?

When asked about his present equation with Shah Rukh, Sunny said they were never enemies. However, he stopped short of calling him a close friend.

“We are all colleagues,” he said, explaining that most relationships within the film industry remain professional. Sunny added that his real friendships date back to his school and college days.

Their equation visibly improved in 2023 when Shah Rukh called Sunny to congratulate him on the blockbuster success of Gadar 2. SRK later attended the film’s success celebration, where the two actors hugged and posed together, seemingly putting decades of speculation behind them. Sunny also revealed that he spoke to Gauri Khan and Aryan Khan during their interaction.

The rivalry may have become Bollywood folklore, but Sunny’s latest remarks make one thing clear: there is no continuing hostility, even if friendship is still too strong a word for their equation.