Shehzad Khan recalls Ajit Khan’s reaction to Andaz Apna Apna’s Bhalla: ‘Maine serious image banaya, tumne…’

What happens when the son of one of Hindi cinema’s most feared villains decides to turn his father’s trademark menace into comedy? For Shehzad Khan, it became one of the defining performances of his career.

Best remembered as Bhalla, the bumbling henchman in Andaz Apna Apna, Shehzad recently recalled how Ajit Khan reacted to his performance, and how his father’s intimidating screen image had followed him long before he ever entered Bollywood.

Why were children scared of Shehzad Khan because of Ajit?

Long before Shehzad became Bhalla, he was simply Ajit Khan’s son at school. And that came with an unexpected problem. Speaking about his childhood, Shehzad recalled that girls at school were frightened of him because they believed the villain they saw on screen was essentially the man who lived at home. “Ladkiyaan mujhse bahut darti thi,” he recalled, explaining that children would associate his father with characters who kidnapped heroines, mistreated them and attacked heroes.

The distinction between actor and character was not always obvious to children. Shehzad said they believed what they saw on screen. He even remembered making the same mistake himself.

Watching his father in the Rajesh Khanna-starrer Andaz, he saw a scene involving a train and thought Ajit had actually gone away. When he returned home, he found his father sitting there as usual.

Ajit, meanwhile, had built one of Hindi cinema’s most recognisable villain personas. India Today, in its retrospective on the actor, noted his distinctive delivery, mannerisms and memorable characters in films such as Zanjeer, Yaadon Ki Baaraat and Kalicharan.

How did Ajit Khan’s voice become Bhalla’s secret weapon?

The irony is that the very image that made Shehzad’s childhood complicated eventually helped create his most famous character. When producer Vinay Kumar Sinha offered him the role of Bhalla in Andaz Apna Apna, director Rajkumar Santoshi had one unusual condition: Shehzad should not use his own voice. He wanted him to imitate Ajit Khan.

Shehzad accepted. He drew on his father's distinctive expressions, gestures and dialogue delivery, turning that familiar villainous style into something deliberately comic. His introduction as Bhalla, beginning with “Mera naam hota hai Vinod, lekin saari duniya mujhe Bhalla ke naam se jaanti hai”, became part of the character’s identity.

Why did Ajit Khan tell his son, ‘Harkat dobara mat karna’?

The joke did not amuse everyone. After watching Shehzad’s performance, Ajit reportedly told his son not to repeat the stunt. Shehzad recalled his father saying, in essence, that he had spent years building a serious image and his son had turned it into comedy.

In a separate 2025 interview with Bollywood Hungama, Shehzad said his father initially objected after friends told him that his son had copied his voice. But Ajit also understood how passionately Shehzad was pursuing acting.

That complicated reaction fits the relationship Shehzad has described elsewhere. In another interview, he called his father a very good actor and human being, but also a very strict father.

What did audiences miss from Shehzad Khan’s Bhalla?

There was even more Bhalla that viewers never got to see. In his latest conversation with ANI, Shehzad said several comic punches were removed from the final cut of Andaz Apna Apna. He recalled one deleted sequence in which Bhalla, Teja and Robert are taken away by the police, with Bhalla delivering another line inside the police van before the frame freezes.

He said he had three or four additional comic punches that did not survive the edit.

It is a tantalising thought for fans of the 1994 film: a movie already packed with memorable characters might have contained even more Bhalla madness. And perhaps that is the strangest twist in Shehzad Khan’s story. He grew up trying to separate Ajit Khan the father from Ajit Khan the villain. Then, decades later, he took that very villainous image, borrowed his father's voice and mannerisms, and helped turn them into one of Hindi cinema’s most enduring comic characters.

For Shehzad, Bhalla was not simply a role. It was his father’s legacy, seen through a very different lens.

(With inputs from ANI)