‘The one who wins after losing is called a juggler.’ ‘Baazigar’, directed by Abbas-Mustan, released in 1993, is still the favorite film of many of us. This film gave a big boost to the careers of Shahrukh Khan, Kajol and Shilpa Shetty. This was Shilpa Shetty’s debut film. Shahrukh Khan did an amazing job in the role of anti-hero on screen. At that time, this film, made with a budget of Rs 4 crore, had earned Rs 32 crore. That one twist in the beginning of the film shocked everyone, when Shahrukh Khan’s character kills Shilpa Shetty by pushing her down from the roof of a tall building. Now 31 years after the release of the film, Abbas-Mustan have shared a funny anecdote related to this scene in a new interview. Shilpa Shetty played a small role of Seema Chopra in her debut film. Talking to ‘Radio Nasha’, director duo Abbas-Mustan said, ‘When this film was being made, both Kajol and Shilpa were only 17 years old. There is a scene in the film, where Shilpa Shetty’s character is pushed and she falls from the terrace and dies. Shilpa is Kajol’s sister in the film. In such a situation, when she came to know, she had to cry in the scene and Shahrukh had to console her. But the problem for us was that when Kajol saw Shilpa lying on the ground, she could not stop laughing. She was laughing continuously.
Abbas told why Kajol started laughing
Mustan says, ‘She was only 17 years old and I think she did not understand the scene.’ However, Abbas interrupted him and said, ‘I don’t think it was because of his age. He had then said – Shilpa has died in the scene, but she is lying with her eyes open. Now how can I bring out my feelings?
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Then the scene was shot like this, Kajol started crying
Abbas-Mustan told that after this they prepared a four-camera set-up to finalize the scene. The importance of that scene was explained to Kajol. He was called aside. Director Jodi said, ‘We called him and told him to imagine that the dead girl lying on the ground is your younger sister Tanisha. What would you do if you saw your own sister soaked in blood? After this she immediately started crying. She was crying so much that even after sitting in the car, she kept sobbing. We then shot it in just one take and thus whatever was in that scene was natural.
When Abbas-Mustan came to meet Kajol for the film
The director duo told that when they signed Kajol, the actress’s debut film ‘Bekhudi’ had not been released. She was shooting him. Both say, ‘When we reached Kajol’s house to meet her, she was writing something. She was a natural. When we saw her acting in the film, she looked like a child. Both of them were 17-year-old minors at that time, so we had to sign the contract for the film with their parents.
Shahrukh Khan and Kajol in ‘Baazigar’
This is how Shilpa Shetty’s entry in ‘Baazigar’ happened
Earlier, while talking to Reddif, Abbas-Mustan had told that Shilpa’s name came to them through ‘Venus Films’. He said, ‘Told us that there is a girl who wants to work in films. We wanted a girl who did not have any previous image, because if we cast a big star in the role of Seema Chopra and Shahrukh threw her from the roof, then people would start sympathizing with her. Then the entire film would have been about that track. Even though we didn’t want that.
