Shah Rukh Khan’s Baazigar, Amitabh Bachchan’s Sholay, Aamir Khan's PK: 5 Bollywood Movies That Almost Had a Different Ending
When filmmakers were compelled to change the endings of their movie.
All is well that ends well. A perfect end to a movie can propel its quality to top notch. Radhika Apte's Phobia might seem to be confusing until the end, but once the climax kicks in, each and every frame of the film becomes several times more beautiful. There is no other way in the world we'd want Raj and Simran reunite but by the latter running behind a train to hold the former's hand. Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge reference, in case you didn't get it. But sometimes filmmakers dwindle with how they want to end their product. Sometimes, the end is rewritten on the editing table. Something that was not the part of the script. Sometimes multiple endings are shot and tested. Well, it has just been revealed that his '90s blockbuster Baazigar was supposed to end in an entirely different way than it did. Inspired, we list down 5 Bollywood movies that flirted with the idea of ending the movie differently than intended.
Baazigar
The directors of the film, Abbas-Mustan, revealed that they shot two endings for the Shah Rukh Khan film. Mustan said, "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." 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.
Sholay
Director of one of the most successful films ever revealed that the censor board made him change the original ending. In an interview, Ramesh Sippy said, "I had shot a different ending for Sholay, where Gabbar is killed by Thakur. But the Censor Board, didn't allow that. They were not happy about Thakur killing Gabbar with his feet. I was also caught in a sticky situation... how else would Thakur kill him? He couldn't have used a gun since he had no arms. They were also unhappy about too much violence... they said 'you have to change the end'. I wasn't happy, but I did that,"
Coolie
As per a report by India TV, after Amitabh Bachchan suffered a near fatal injury while filming Coolie, the makers changed the ending to make it a happy one. Apparently, Amitabh's character was not supposed to survive the end, but even we agree that climax would have infuriated the audience given the tense situation.
PK
As per some reports, Aamir Khan's character of an alien was not supposed to return to Earth at the film's end. But after test screenings and suggestions, makers reshot the ending to include the one that we see in the current print. Raj Kumar Hirani said in an interview with BollywoodLife, "'We didn't have Ranbir in the film always. I'll tell you the reason why we got him. First of all, the process of scripting is ongoing. You can't just lock the script, finish it and go shoot it. As you are working, ideas keep coming and you feel some things can be done better so you keep modifying. So when we finished the film, we showed it to some people and we realized that people were feeling very sad in the end because PK is gone and he didn't even get the girl. So people left with a heavy-heart. Then we thought we'll have to do something about it so we re-wrote the whole scene where Aamir comes back on earth and we made the whole voice over funny. Because we wanted people to leave happily. We wanted a smile on their faces rather than sadness.''
Delhi 6
As per a report by Times of India, director of the film, Rakesyt Omprakash Mehra, and lead actor, Abhishek Bachchan, had arguments over the original ending where the main character dies. Producers also insisted that the filmmaker end the movie on a positive note, forcing Mehra to shoot for an alternate ending. One year after the release of the film, the director geared up to release the cut with the original ending of the film. Mehra said, “ I made a mistake. I should have gone with my original script with the tragic ending.” Though that director's cut never saw the light of the day.
What do you think about these alternate endings? Do you think they would have worked better for the movies? Do you think SRK's character should have survived at the end of Baazigar? Do you think Abhishek's character should have died at the end of Delhi 6? Do you think PK should have not returned to Earth? Tweet to us @latestly.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 12, 2018 06:20 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).