Shooting began in earnest, and some songs were shot in London last year, but then differences cropped up between Sunny and Gurinder over the handling of the subject of the film. Shooting was stalled and the bickering went on for some weeks.

    Ultimately, it was announced that Gurinder was out of the team. After deliberating over the subject for some time, Sunny Deol announced his intention to direct the film.

An Indianized version of William Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew," "Betaab" co-starred Sunny with Amrita Singh. It is probably Sunny's most romantic film, since he never again seemed as comfortable doing romantic scenes.

     There are other similarities between the father and son. Dharmendra entered the film industry when he was still in his 20s, and was a married man. When Sunny entered the film industry just as he was 21 already engaged to be married to a London-based Punjabi girl.

     Dharmendra insisted that Sunny should be launched under the family banner, Bikramjit Films and so Sunny was introduced in 1983 in Betaab, directed by Rahul Rawail.

     An Indianized version of William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, the film co-starred Sunny with Amrita Singh. It is probably Sunny's most romantic film, since he never again seemed as comfortable doing romantic scenes.

     But Sunny claims that he was quite apprehensive about the film. He knew that as Dharmandra's son, people had high expectations from him.

     Perhaps his fears proved to be true -- his next film, titled Sunny, directed by veteran filmmaker Raj Khosla and costarring Amrita, did not perform too well at the boxoffice.

     Although he continued with his career, his next notable film was Sohni Mahiwal, directed by Umesh Mehra and also starring Poonam Dhillon. The film performed moderately at the boxoffice.

     His next film Arjun, directed by Rahul Rawail had Sunny portraying the role of the angry young man, a role he has since perfected.

     In 1987, Rahul Rawail once again repeated Sunny in his film Dacait. The protagonist in the film was a simple farmer forced by circumstances to become an outlaw, and Sunny played the role to perfection.

     In Yateem directed by J.P. Dutta and costarring Farha, Sunny once again portrayed a similar role -- a social outcast forced to become a criminal because of circumstances.

     Around this time, Sunny had a major hit in Chalbaaz. The film, a remake of the Hema Malini starer Seeta Aur Geeta, had him starring opposite Sridevi who played the double role. Rajnikanth was the other male lead. While the comedy was mostly left to Rajnikanth, the muscles and fights were left to Sunny.

     But it was in Raj Kumar Santoshi's Ghayal, that Sunny exhibited his versatility. The film won him his first national award for best actor in 1990.

     In Narasimha in 1991 Sunny was cast as a criminal who reforms and seeks to destroy the very people who led him to evil. This was Sunny's first film with Dimple Kapadia, and featured them in subdued love scenes.

     Although his role in Lootere, directed by Dharmesh Darshan's was also notable, it was Damini in 1993 starring him opposite Meenakshi Seshadhri which won Sunny his second national award.

     Inspired by the Paul Newman starer The Verdict, the film had Rishi Kapoor in the main lead. But Sunny, who enters the film mid-way, clearly stole the show as the lawyer who defends the heroine.

     Some other memorable films include Jeet, and Ghatak in 1996, and Ziddi the following year. All the three films had Sunny playing the underdog who finally rebels against his circumstances.

     But perhaps the finest moment for Sunny came last year. Although he did not win any award for this role, his portrayal of an Army commander in J.P. Dutta's Border has been greatly appreciated.

     But after Border, Sunny is back to the angry-young-man routine in films like Zor and Salaakhen, two of his recent releases.

     Sunny's other films include Zor, Qahar, Angrakshak, Ajay, Manzil Manzil, Zabardast, Darr, Sultanat, Sawere Waali Gadi, Paap Ki Duniya, and Ram Avatar.

     Films under production include Ishq Mushq, Champion, Bajrang and Ek Hindustani.

     Sunny began very well, and appeared to be ruling the market, at least as far as films with the angry young man roles were concerned. But mid-way, he underwent a bad phase. And before he could reestablish his position in the market, he got involved with launching his brother Bobby, who made a debut with Rajesh Khanna's daughter Twinkle in Barsaat.

     But from the latter half of 1996, Sunny's bad patch seemed to be fading away.

     Perhaps one reason for this is that he now appears more comfortable in song and dance sequences.

     Sunny always appears ill at ease in dance sequences. Asked why he hated dancing, he said as a young boy it had been grilled into his mind that dancing was something that men did not do, and this could be the reason for his discomfort.

     But as he has said in various interviews, it is only after he took over the mantle of a director that he understood the importance of music and dance.

     Almost a year ago, Sunny had forecast that he would become a director some day, as it was the most powerful portfolio in filmmaking.

     But he had noted that a director has to be hands-on, alert, and take his job serious. Considering his own statements, directing "London" will probably prove to be the acid test for Sunny Deol.