Mumbai, May 1 As the cult-favourite “Gunda” turned 28 in 2026, Mukesh Rishi reminisces about the unintentionally hilarious film, where he played the campy villain “Bulla”, who spoke in rhyming lyrics. The actor said that when he was working on Kanti Shah’s directorial, he shouldn’t have been in the film.
However, 28 years later, when the 1998 movie, which also stars Mithun Chakraborty, Mohan Joshi, Shakti Kapoor and Harish Patel, as the film has achieved a cult status, Mukesh film feels it is the “humour” that connects with all.
“When we were doing it, I felt like it was not going well, or I shouldn’t have been in this film,” Said Mukesh Rishi, whose iconic rhyming line from “Gunda”,“Mera naam hai Bulla, rakhta hoon khulla”, remains etched in pop culture.
He added: “But after a few years, the new generation liked Gunda a lot. The biggest thing is that they see the humour, all the lines and everything…”
Did he anticipate the quirky style of his character Bulla would become such a defining and memorable aspect of the film?
Mukesh credits writer Bashir Babbar for it.
“It was the writer's game. Whenever I think of Gunda, I think of him, because he didn't make a character just for me. All the characters Mohan Joshi, Shakti Kapoor, Harish Patel, they all had their own characters,” said Mukesh.
He added: “Okay, we put in a little bit of our information, but I think those lines were like that. They could have been said in the same way. And he was there with us.”
Mukesh concluded: “When we started, he said, ‘You should be like this, you should be like that, you should say it like this, you should say it like that.’ We kept doing all that, but I want to give full credit to the writer. It's amazing, I have never seen six or seven people speaking differently about their lines.”
“Gunda” revolves around a coolie who vows to exact revenge upon a crime lord and his cronies after they kill his loved ones. Over time, the film has gained a cult following, selling over 2,000 VCD copies at a single outlet. It also received a limited re-release in 2018.
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