Filmmaker Sriram Raghavan has built an impeccable reputation with films like Johnny Gaddaar, Ek Hasina Thi, Badlapur, and Andhadhun. Yet, there are a few movies he didn’t make that fans often wonder how he might have reimagined — one of them being Abbas-Mustan’s Baazigar, the film that made Shah Rukh Khan an overnight star. In a recent conversation with Pinkvilla, Sriram revealed that during his struggling days, he had unknowingly begun adapting the same story that would eventually become Baazigar.
“Ye toh superb kahaani hai… ye toh mereko banana hai (This is such a superb story… I have to make this),” he remembered thinking after reading the novel. “At that time I didn’t even think about rights or anything. It felt like I had found a great story that I needed to make.” Passionately, Sriram began writing his version. But when he narrated it to veteran actor Tinnu Anand, he was surprised. “While I was narrating to him, he looked at me and told me the film you are telling me boss is getting made right now… and I’m acting in it.” That film was Baazigar, adapted from the novel A Kiss Before Dying, which Abbas-Mustan and Venus Films were already making.
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Sriram Raghavan remembers watching Baazigar at Mumbai’s Anupam theatre: “When it came out I watched it in Anupam, and the entire public went electric… and I was sitting quietly.” Sriram added that he would have taken the story in a completely different direction, sticking closer to the original novel: A story about a psychopath with no revenge track, where he kills three girls in his pursuit to become a millionaire. He also recalled meeting Shah Rukh Khan and the directors. “I remember meeting Shah Rukh and Abbas-Mustan also… telling them this happened…” he said laughingly.
Later, he pitched the story to Vidhu Vinod Chopra. “I told him you produce it… But he said iss mein gaane nahi hai… aur yeh nahi woh nahi… and make it masaledar (this doesn’t have songs… this and that is missing… make it more spicy),” which Sriram disagreed with.
