The real story of Shah Rukh Khan’s blockbuster film Baazigar was completely different. It was about a character who was a villain but also won people’s hearts.
In 1993, a storm hit Indian cinema – the film was Baazigar. When Shah Rukh Khan played a negative role in the movie, everyone was shocked. It was the beginning of his career, and choosing a negative role at that time was a big risk. But it worked. Not only did the film become a super hit, Shah Rukh Khan also made the anti-hero into a new kind of hero in cinema.
But what may surprise you is that the story you saw in Baazigar was not the original story.
The director duo Abbas-Mustan revealed in an interview that the first draft of the film was completely different. In that version, the hero was a full villain. His childhood was full of pain. His father was a drunkard who used to beat his mother. The boy used to think that one day he would become rich, no matter what he had to do.
When he grew up, he got involved with two daughters of a rich businessman named Madan Chopra. He killed one of the daughters, and when the second one found out the truth, she killed him.
So why was the story changed? According to Mastan Burmawala, it was important for the audience to feel sympathy for the hero. If someone is doing wrong, what is the reason behind it? What is his background? This idea changed the whole story. They learned from legendary directors like Prakash Mehra and Manmohan Desai that a film only becomes a hit when it has emotions.
So what story finally became Baazigar?
In the new version, Shah Rukh Khan’s character was Ajay Sharma – a young man whose father was betrayed and killed by a greedy businessman named Madan Chopra. His mother lost her mental balance, and his sister died too. This boy started burning with the desire for revenge. Years later, he took on a new identity and targeted Madan Chopra’s daughters.
He trapped the first daughter (Seema) in love and killed her. But with the second daughter (Priya), he fell in real love. In the final scene, when the truth is revealed, he dies from his injuries in his mother’s lap.
Baazigar not only became a turning point in Shah Rukh Khan’s career, but it also introduced the anti-hero strongly into Indian cinema.
The famous dialogue “Sometimes, to win something, you have to lose something” was added later.
After the success of the film, Shah Rukh Khan said, “I came as a villain, and became everyone’s hero.