Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Baazigar released on 12 November, 1993. It was one of Kajol’s earliest successes and marked Shilpa Shetty’s debut. The film faced quite a few hurdles, from delays in shooting due to the communal riots that broke out that year, to not getting a hero to play a negative role. But as the film completes 25 years, the director duo Abbas Mustan are happy as it is regarded one of the best Bollywood thrillers till date.
SRK, who bucked trends to play the anti-hero so early in his career, took to social media to recreate the famous Baazigar dialogue: “Kabhi kabhi jeetne ke liye kuch haarna bhi padta hai ... aur haar kar jeetne waale ko baazigar kehte hai”.
Baazigar chronicles the story of a young man with a vendetta against a business tycoon and how he plots to destroy the rest of the family.
People still like the film and it is a big compliment to the entire team. The important thing is the maker should be convinced with his own vision as that will reflect on screen. We had a hero playing a negative role. Though it led to the hit pairing of Shah Rukh and Kajol, it was not a romantic film. But it all worked well.Mustan Burmawalla, Director
He recalls the movie received overwhelming response across the globe and they witnessed it during the film's US and UK screenings.
Mustan, an ardent fan of Manmohan Desai's cinema, was inspired by the filmmaking style of the renowned director to form the crux of Baazigar as a mother-son story with revenge as backdrop.
"In his films, the character of a mother was of utmost importance. We wanted to have that element in our film. It is all about bringing the right emotion for a film. If the mother-son relationship is explored and justified properly on screen then it definitely strikes a chord with audience. If a son is taking revenge for his mother then his every sin is forgiven. And it worked well with the audience," he explains.
The makers felt veteran actor Rakhee Gulzar was the perfect choice to play a distressed mother to Shah Rukh. It was Rakhee, who had told the director duo to change the climax of the film.
Rakhee ji said yes but wanted the ending to be changed as she felt audience should not be let down. A lot of distributors said the hero should not die in the end and instead the police should come and arrest him. So we had shot both the endings. We felt the ending where the police comes and takes SRK will not work as the emotional graph of the character would not be conveyed correctly.Mustan Burmawalla
When the first copy came out, Mustan says, both, the distributors and Rakhee eventually agreed to go with the duo's vision of the climax.
Mustan recalls, Shah Rukh had come to meet producers at Venus company for the narration of a film, which he did not like, but a chance encounter with the director duo, got him Baazigar.
There have been rumours about the sequel to the film but Mustan is happy that the film is relevant even today and a part two can only be made if they come across a great story.
(Inputs: PTI)
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