'Baazigar' was shot with two endings, reveal Abbas-Mustan

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Shah Rukh Khan starrer "Baazigar" faced quite a few hurdles from delay in shoot due to communal riots, to not getting a hero to play a negative rolebut 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.

Released on November 12, 1993, "Baazigar" featured Shah Rukh as an anti-hero. The thriller, also Kajol's one of the earliest successes and Shilpa Shetty's debut, became a blockbuster thanks to its plot and chartbuster music by Anu Malik.

As the film completes 25 years, Mustan, in an interview with PTI, talks about the obstacles the team faced, why Salman Khan and Anil Kapoor turned down the anti-hero role and why they shot two different climax scenes for the movie.

"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 told PTI.

He recalls the movie received overwhelming response across the globe and they witnessed it during the film's US and UK screenings.

The birth of the film, however, was difficult. The mahurat of the film was done in December 1992 and the shoot was scheduled to start soon, with the aim to wrap it up by January-February.

The film hit a roadblock after communal riots broke in different parts of the country post the demolition of Babri Masjid on December 6.

"There was a tense moment due to riots, people were scared and were not going out. But Mumbai is a city that bounces back like never before. Once things got cleared, work began as usual.

"We started shooting sometime in late March and wrapped it by May-June and decided to release it on Diwali. The film was earlier set to release in June-July."
"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."
"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."
Describing SRK as a director's actor, Mustan says, "He used to shoot one scene in four-five different ways. He has a huge range as an actor."
Giving example of a scene, where SRK kills Resham Tipnis (Shilpa Shetty's friend), who had photographs as evidence to unmask him, Mustan says, "We told him that he should keep the photograph in his pocket. Shah Rukh instead thought of tearing the photo and putting it in his mouth. There were things which he did spontaneously."