Abbas-Mustan reveal original Baazigar ending: 'Shah Rukh Khan was killed by Kajol'

Abbas-Mustan reveal how Baazigar evolved from a dark script to an emotional thriller, with Shah Rukh Khan’s anti-hero shaped to evoke empathy, marking a turning point in his career and Hindi cinema.

Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol in a still from Baazigar

Most people recall Shah Rukh Khan's Baazigar (1993) as the film that introduced a morally ambiguous lead and changed the trajectory of mainstream Hindi cinema. Director duo Abbas-Mustan pondered the film's inspiration and the reasons behind their belief that Shah Rukh's character remained the protagonist despite his deeds more than three decades after the fact.

Story behind risky narrative

While interacting recently, the filmmakers discussed the daring narrative choices they made with Baazigar a film that was derived from several sources and moulded to appeal to the Hindi movie audience at that age.

Mustan Burmawalla remarked, "It was a new concept at that time. We thought of Shah Rukh’s character as a hero; he was negative, but he was our hero, and also, you have to understand why he did what he did in the film. For instance, if some character is doing something negative, but in the background he has some good qualities or there is a reason for him to turn negative, then if his character turns negative, that is also okay."

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Darker first draft

He proceeded to disclose that the original script had a far darker tone. Originally, the film's protagonist was a completely negative person who had a rough upbringing due to his drunken father's beatings of his mother and his own hopeless desire to amass enormous wealth. Upon reaching adulthood, the protagonist chooses to enter into a relationship with a millionaire's two daughters before murdering one of them in an attempt to seize control of her father's fortune. The second girl learns the character's true motives later on and kills him. He clarified that this was the film's initial script.

However, they quickly realised that a film lacking emotional depth could potentially fail at the box office. They chose to alter the character's motivations, drawing inspiration from the emotional themes in mainstream Hindi cinema, particularly those of Manmohan Desai and Prakash Mehra. The film, Mustan said, "would not work without emotions," the most significant of which are those of the parents.

Building empathy through tragedy

At that point, they decided to put in some background on Ajay Sharma's (SRK) terrible history, which includes his father's death, his mother's trauma, and the death of his younger sister. They reasoned that these details, despite his nefarious acts, would put him in perspective and elicit empathy from the audience.

Mustan also emphasised the importance of the film's structure. "The screenplay was the most important aspect of Baazigar" he remarked, describing how they sought time to prepare the new version after informing the producer of the tone shift.

Defining moment in Shah Rukh Khan's career

Shah Rukh Khan's Baazigar marked a significant milestone in his career, demonstrating his willingness to venture beyond conventional leading man roles and achieving commercial success.

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