Remember Sunny Deol’s son Jeete from Gadar? Here’s how Utkarsh Sharma looks now and what he’s been up to

It has been 20 years since Gadar released. The movie starred Sunny Deol, Ameesha Patel and Amrish Puri, among many other stars. While the performances by the lead stars impressed audiences, viewers were also moved by the child actor who played Sunny and Ameesha’s son Jeete. The role was essayed by Gadar director Anil Sharma’s son Utkarsh Sharma.

Little Utkarsh’s Jeete had many memorable scenes in the movie. This includes singing the hit Gadar song Udja Kale Kawan, travelling to Pakistan with his on-screen father to win his mother back, and standing by his father’s side.

Following Gadar, Utkarsh returned in front of the camera a few times. He was directed by his father Anil twice as a child actor, appearing in Tumhare Hawale Watan Saathiyon and Apne. While he played the younger version of Bobby Deol in the Amitabh Bachchan starrer, he incidentally essayed the role of a young Sunny in the Dharmendra movie.

In 2018, Utkarsh made his debut as a lead actor with Genius. Once again directed by Anil, Utkarsh was seen alongside stars like Ishitha Chauhan, Mithun Chakraborthy, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Ayesha Jhulka, KK Raina, Zakir Hussain, Abhimanyu Singh and more. Unfortunately, the movie did not perform well at the box office. He’s yet to announce his next project.

Also read: Gadar turns 20: Director describes iconic hand pump scene, says ‘intellectuals did not understand the emotions’

Anil, on the occasion of Gadar’s 20th anniversary, told SpotboyE that he wasn’t keen on casting Utkarsh in Gadar initially. He said that Ameesha recommended Utkarsh’s name since the filmmaker was struggling to find the right child actor for the role.

“I told her that he was still in school, and I wanted him to focus on that. I believed that if he acted in his childhood, he wouldn’t focus on his studies. And even Utkarsh would run away from the mention of acting. But then as we came extremely close to the shoot date, we couldn’t find anyone, so I told my wife that let’s take Utkarsh only. My wife explained to Utkarsh the situation and she asked him to help his father. Then, he came up to me and said, ‘Papa, if you want, for you I will do it’. I just hugged him after that gesture,” he said.