Remember the favored music Naayak Nahi Khal Nayak Hu Main… these lyrics from Khal Nayak’s (1993) title observe had been truly the seed that led filmmaker Subhash Ghai create the cult movie.
“The whole film was written with the thought that every villain is aware of who a good man is. That’s why, I always call the antagonist, tragic hero of the film. And because I wanted to bring this theme out well on the screen, casting was the most difficult part,” says Ghai, because the movie clocks 30 years.
Ghai, who has labored with actors like Jackie Shroff, Rishi Kapoor and Anil Kapoor, reveals how each star again then wished to work on Khal Nayak. “It was very challenging for me to find the right fit,” says the filmmaker, sharing the explanation why he lastly selected Sanjay Dutt over others. “Once Sanju asked me why I chose him for the role, and I told him it’s because of his eyes. Uski aankhon mein ek bholapan hai, ek bachpana hai. But in the very next moment, you see a man who’s full of anger. He plays the son, but at the same time he justifies the character of a villain who kidnaps and murders,” he elaborates.
But that was not all. The 78-year-old additional says that one other crucial issue whereas casting for the position of Khal Nayak was that he wished an actor “who would completely surrender to the director. In those times, the director used to be the supreme power, unlike today when stars and studios rule the space”.
It was the “principal character”, Ghai provides, “And I wanted to get it right. I enacted each and every scene for Sanju. I wanted to make that character look very unpredictable. Yeh abhi pyaar karega, ya maar dega, ye pata nahi lagta. And fortunately, he played the character exactly like I told him to.”
In an try and make Dutt look unpredictable, Ghai needed to improvise a number of scenes within the movie and that was fairly final minute. “There’s a scene when he goes to jail to meet a guy and nicely talks to the him. But as Sanju’s character hugs him, woh uska gala daba kar maar deta hai. Not many people on the set were aware that this would happen and that’s why they were surprised. My assistant, in fact, asked to cut the shot because he thought galti se kar dia Sanjay ne and I told them to let it happen as I had improvised it. We shot it like that and everyone loved it,” he remembers.
Another improvisation occurred within the iconic music Choli Ke Peeche. Ghai recollects that Dutt was speculated to usually watch Madhuri Dixit-Nene dance there. “But then, we decided to improvise it and added a patch to Sanjay’s eye to bring that drama to the scene. And I think that worked as it looked really well on the screen,” he tells us.
Source: www.hindustantimes.com