Veteran filmmaker David Dhawan has said he made his 2013 comedy film Chashme Baddoor out of anger after sensing reluctance from top stars to work with him during a difficult phase in his career.

The filmmaker made the remarks during a conversation with his actor-son Varun Dhawan on the sidelines of the David Dhawan Film Festival, a retrospective organised by PVR INOX to celebrate his contribution to Hindi comedy cinema.

“I made ‘Chashme Baddoor’ out of anger. Chintu ji (Rishi Kapoor) barely had a role in it and I insisted he do it for me. We had three new boys and a girl in it,” Dhawan said.

The film, a remake of Sai Paranjpye’s 1981 cult classic of the same name, starred Taapsee Pannu, Divyendu, Siddharth and Ali Fazal, and received mixed reviews upon release.

Asked whether he faced rejection from actors at a certain point in his career, Dhawan answered in the affirmative and said he sensed stars had become “hesitant” to collaborate with him because his films were underperforming 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.

Dhawan, 74, is best known for directing hit comedies such as Aankhen, Raja Babu, Coolie No. 1, Hero No. 1, Partner and Main Tera Hero. He has had a long-running collaboration with actor Govinda, directing him in 17 films including Shola Aur Shabnam, Aankhen, Raja Babu and Hero No. 1.

Dhawan said Govinda stood by him regardless of the commercial fate of his films.

“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’,” he said.

The filmmaker also criticised what he described as a lack of loyalty among actors in the industry.

“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.”

The festival precedes the release of Dhawan’s upcoming directorial venture Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai, starring Varun Dhawan, Mrunal Thakur and Pooja Hegde. The film is scheduled to release in theatres on June 5.