Parvin Dabas on his first encounter with stardom with Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding

Parvin Dabas began his acting career with Sunny Deol’s 1999 film Dillagi, also featuring Bobby Deol and Urmila Matondkar in lead roles. But Mira Nair’s comedy comedy-drama Monsoon Wedding in 2001 brought him fame and recognition.

In a recent interview with Hindustan Times, Dabas took a trip down memory lane and shared how he was surprised to see people clapping for them in the streets after the film had its screening at the Venice Film Festival in 2001.

“I can tell you about the time I felt the appreciation of fans,” he told the publication, “The first thing I did - Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding - it was a small film. We were at the Venice Film Festival where there were huge hoardings of various big movies from Hollywood and all. Ours was a small 6 by 6 poster. We stayed at bed-and-breakfast with students and tourists. Only Naseeruddin Shah and Mira ji were staying at a hotel, and the rest of us were staying in similar accommodations.”

The actor went on to add, “Nobody knew us and then there was a public screening ahead of the press conference the same day. After the screening, the press conference happened but nothing felt huge. Later in the day, we were walking to Mira ji’s hotel and suddenly people started clapping. We thought Tom Cruise was there and started looking for him. But people began shouting Monsoon Wedding and then we looked at each other ‘they are clapping for us’. That was huge.”

Helmed by Mira Nair and written by Sabrina Dhawan, Monsoon Wedding also featured Lillete Dubey, Shefali Shah, Tillotama Shome, Vijay Raaz, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Roshan Seth, Soni Razdan, Ram Kapoor, Rajat Kapoor, Randeep Hooda, and Vasundhara Das in important roles.

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