Even as popular filmmaker of the 1990s David Dhawan announced his retirement from filmmaking, at an event in Mumbai he did admit that he sensed top actors’ reluctance to collaborate with him in the decade of 2000s and in recent years.

Dhawan said he made his 2013 comedy film, ‘Chashme Baddoor’, “out of anger” after sensing reluctance from top stars to collaborate with him and lamented actors today have no loyalty, according to a PTI report from Mumbai yesterday.

The film, a remake of Sai Paranjpye’s 1981 cult-classic film of the same name, featured actors Taapsee Pannu, Divyendu, Siddharth, and Pakistani actor Ali Fazal. The movie received a mixed response from audiences and critics.

“I made ‘Chashme Baddoor’ out of anger. Chintu ji barely had a role in it and I insisted he do it for me. We had three new boys and a girl in it,” said Dhawan, best known for films like ‘Aankhen’, ‘Raja Babu’, ‘Hero No. 1’, ‘Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya’, ‘Partner’, and ‘Main Tera Hero’ among others,on May 23 in Mumbai at an event to felicitate him.

The veteran director was in conversation with his actor son, Varun Dhawan, on the sidelines of the David Dhawan Film Festival. PVR INOX organized a special cinematic retrospective to celebrate the director’s legacy of iconic Hindi comedies.

When asked about facing rejections from actors at a certain point in his career, Dhawan replied in the affirmative and said he could feel that the stars were “hesitant” to work with him, primarily because his movies were not doing well commercially.

“…Also, I wanted to get out of the rut of working with stars. If a director can write a good script, scenes, dialogues, and have a good song, why not make it with newcomers? Stars do interfere in the process of filmmaking and on top of that working with two actors isn’t easy at all,” he said.

The 74-year-old director has collaborated the most with the 90s Bollywood star Govinda. He directed the actor in 17 comedy films, including hits like ‘Shola Aur Shabnam’, ‘Aankhen’, ‘Raja Babu’, ‘Coolie No. 1’, ‘Hero No. 1’, ‘Partner’, and many others.

Reflecting on his long association with Govinda, Dhawan said he is the only actor in the industry who never worked with him based on the success or failure of his movies.

“There’s one actor who never looked whether my films worked or not, and that is Govinda. I remember when one of my films didn’t do well, I was upset, and he said, ‘Write a script, don’t be sad.’ Then I wrote ‘Shola Aur Shabnam’,” said David Dhawan, who first worked with Govinda on the 1989 action-thriller film, ‘Taaqatwar’.

The filmmaker was blunt in his assessment of actors saying they aren’t “loyal” to anyone, underscoring a shift in actor-director relationships in Bollywood.

“I’ve worked with Amitabh Bachchan, Vinod Khanna, Raj Babbar, Rishi Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, Govinda and Salman Khan. Generally, it’s the actors who run a film. If your film as a director doesn’t work, the actor will move on to the next. This breed of actors is such that they belong to no one, they have no loyalty towards anyone,” he said.

Meanwhile, another PTI report stated that filmmaker Karan Johar got emotional after Dhawan’s retirement announcement and said he had a bittersweet reaction to the news.

Dhawan announced his retirement from directing on Saturday at an event in Mumbai. His upcoming directorial ‘Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai’, which features his son Varun alongside Mrunal Thakur and Pooja Hegde, will be his last film.

Johar shared a note on his Instagram story yesterday and said he is a filmmaker responsible for creating an entire genre of films. “Yesterday I went to Davidji’s celebration and he told me this was going to be his last film…I had a bittersweet reaction in my heart… here’s a filmmaker who is responsible for creating an entire genre of films. A David Dhawan film spells entertainment,” he wrote.