You could say he’s made some headway out of an old injury. With Anurag Kashyap’s Bandar set for a June 5, 2026 release, the actor will tell you that being shown the door in Jab We Met didn’t break him. If anything, it put an edge on him and made for a finer performer.
He is being very open about it. Bobby says he put all the anger and ill will from that period into what he does. Don’t expect any hand-wringing or a plea for your pity. He wants you to look at the work and the man behind it.
Why he is looking back now
On a TV show not long ago, Bobby went over some of the rougher patches to make a point. ‘It made me a better person and a better actor,’ he put it. When the industry gives you a hard time, you can’t just sit there and mope about it.
There are no hard feelings, he is quick to add. ‘We are friends with the ones I’m talking about. The chapter is closed.’ Still, he concedes, ‘I did have my heart broken because I was in need of a film of that sort at the time.’
What happened with the Jab We Met switch
Bobby saw in Imtiaz Ali what others might have missed. A viewing of a Socha Na Tha workprint was enough to tell him the director had something. He even put in the legwork to get Imtiaz and Kareena Kapoor in front of producers to put the rom-com over.
One banner, however, would have none of it, with Imtiaz being too much of an investment, they said. In the end, that very same house put together the movie with the same cast and crew, only with Shahid in his place. The 2007 film was a phenomenon and Bobby was on the outside looking in.
How did it come to that? ‘When you’re not in a good position in the market, you don’t have any support,’ he explains. You lose your nerve, the moment passes and that’s that.
The story behind the tie-up
Then there was Socha Na Tha in 2005, with his cousin Abhay Deol and Ayesha Takia. Vijayta Films, with Dharmendra and Sunny Deol at the helm, put it out, and it only confirmed for Bobby that Imtiaz was the real deal.
‘I was sold on him when he was at it with Abhay,’ Bobby remembers. ‘I put on the rough cut and was really moved by it. I figured, here is a fine director, I want to be in one of his films.’
Imtiaz Ali has his side of it
You can put it another way. Imtiaz Ali put some colour on the story in 2023, saying he put a two-year hold on things after Socha Na Tha with the idea of having Bobby front the next project. But according to him, Bobby was dallying, mulling over other offers from some heavy-hitting directors.
For Imtiaz, that kind of wait was no longer an option. After five years on Socha Na Tha and then nothing for a couple of years, the money side of it started to bite. He made it clear to Bobby: let’s part ways on this one and be done with it, so we don’t have any hard feelings.
Then there is the matter of who is right. Both versions of events can stand up to scrutiny. It was a case of being out of sync, which put a dream role out of reach for Bobby, but you won’t find either of them making a fuss about it now. There is a sting to it, sure, but no rancour.
A hard reset
If there is a story to be told, it is in how Bobby has turned the page. “I made up my mind to make the hurt and anger I’ve been through into something I can use,” he says. “It has only taught me to be a better actor, a better person.”
He was even more open on a podcast not long ago. “I was in pieces. I had no work. I was in these very by-the-numbers Bollywood films with a few directors…” He has no trouble calling Imtiaz a top talent, but will admit it “went wrong” in the end.
You can see the change in the run of work he has put out since. He was the face of Prakash Jha’s Aashram, put in some strong turns in Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s 2023 hit Animal, and made an appearance in Aryan Khan’s first foray as a director for Netflix, The Ba
*ds of Bollywood.
What he is saying
Some of the salient points from his latest comments:
– Being replaced was a heartbreak, he says, but he holds no grudge
– He has put any ill-will to good use in his work
– The market at the time didn’t allow for the support
– He is still on good terms with those he has worked with
– You have to thank the times you are set back for where you end up
The Bandar factor**
Now comes the test. On 5 June 2026, Bandar will be in theatres with Bobby as Samar Mehra, a pop star of some repute whose world comes apart when sexual assault claims set off a media and legal firestorm.
Anurag Kashyap is at the helm, with a script from Sudip Sharma and Abhishek Banerjee – the folks who gave us Paatal Lok and Udta Punjab. Sanya Malhotra, Sapna Pabbi, Saba Azad, Raj B. Shetty, Indrajith Sukumaran and Jitendra Joshi are also in the mix.
There is a certain irony to it: in the film he is a has-been, much like he has been in reality. If Jab We Met was the low point, maybe this is where he puts a full stop to the mending. We’ll know in 2026.
