Sunny Deol as Ajay Mehra in Ghayal is a character that is still etched in our memory. The film gave impetus to Sunny’s angry young man image. Today is the day when 28 years back this Rajkumar Santoshi film released and looking back, the 163-minute-long motion picture impressed audiences when it hit theatres on June 22, 1990.

Ghayal highlighted how boxer Ajay Mehra fights for justice for himself and his family. And his love interest Varsha Bharti, played by Meenakshi Seshadri, was seen to be his side throughout. It’s also hard to forget villainous Balwant Rai, essayed by Amrish Puri, who won praise for his performance. Along with them, the film also had the powerful cast of Raj Babbar, Moushmi Chatterjee, Om Puri and Kulbhushan Kharbanda.

Here are few interesting things you might not know about the film:
Though Ghayal was a hit, the film didn’t have an easy beginning. Santoshi, who had earlier assisted Govind Nihalani, wrote the story with Kamal Haasan in mind, and he to struggle a lot to find a producer till Sunny came on board and Dharmendra decided to produce it under his banner Vijayta Films.

Dharmendra's father gave the mahurat clap during launching of Ghayal and even Sunny Deol his mother was also there at the launching of the film.

Sunny wanted to rope in actor Dimple Kapadia for Ghayal, but Dharmendra wasn’t keen and cast Meenakshi instead.

Ghayal clashed with Indra Kumar’s romantic drama, Dil, starring Aamir Khan and Madhuri Dixit, but it went on to enjoy a successful run at the box office.

It was reported that Sunny had a fallout with three of the biggest directors he had collaborated with in his career. And Santoshi is one of them. The list also includes JP Dutta and Suneel Darshan.

The sequel to the film released 26 years later directed by Sunny Deol himself.