man accused of murdering his stepfather over an engagement proposal and wrongly imprisoned. He escapes and tracks down the real killer. Gupt: The Hidden Truth was highly acclaimed for its storyline and soundtrack and was a commercial success. In the same year, Deol appeared in Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya, alongside Aishwarya Rai in her debut Bollywood role. The film failed to do well at the box office. In 1998, Deol starred opposite Neha in the Vidhu Vinod Chopra film, Kareeb. Deol played the character of Birju, an irresponsible young man from an upper-middle-class family in Himachal Pradesh with a love of petty thievery and deceit. Later in 1998, he appeared in Abbas Mustan's military thriller Soldier, alongside Raakhee and Preity Zinta. Deol played the mysterious character of Vicky, later revealed as Raju, son of Vijay Malhotra who was convicted of arms smuggling. Soldier was a big hit and was a huge commercial success. In 1999, Deol starred in Dillagi, directed by and co-starring his brother Sunny Deol. The film is noted for being the first time Sunny Deol directed a film and also the first time he acted alongside Bobby Deol. This pairing was repeated in 23rd March 1931: Shaheed (2002), Apne (2007) and Yamla Pagla Deewana (2011) among others. Dillagi features the two as the brothers Ranvir and Rajvir, fighting for the affection of Shalini (Urmila Matondkar). In 2000, Deol appeared in the action drama Badal alongside Rani Mukerji, under the director's helm of Raj Kanwar. The film is set in 1984 when riots were engulfing parts of Punjab and Delhi. Deol plays the character of Badal, a boy who witnesses the massacre of his family and villagers by the corrupt Police Inspector Jai Singh Rana (Ashutosh Rana) and grows up to be a dreaded terrorist, fuelled by the anger and hatred of the authorities who wrongly deprived him of his family and friends. The film is inspired by The Devil's Own (1997), starring Brad Pitt and Harrison Ford. Badal was a commercial success. Following this, he starred alongside Karisma Kapoor in Hum To Mohabbat Karega (2000), and reunited with Rani Mukerji in Bichhoo (2000), a blatant remake of Luc Besson's 1994 film Leon, starring Jean Reno and Natalie Portman. In Bichhoo, Deol plays Reno's role, Jeeva, a young man from a struggling middle-class family who has the misfortune of falling in love with the wealthy Kiran (Malaika Arora).