'We never thought Baazigar would be such a big hit'

'If you watch Baazigar even today, after 30 years of its release, you will enjoy it because of its novel story line.'

Baazigar turned 30 years on November 12, and made the careers of everyone associated with it -- from actors Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol and Shilpa Shetty to Directors Abbas-Mustan and Music Composer Anu Malik.

Abbas-Mustan look back at the film and tell Patcy N/Rediff.com, "After Baazigar and Badshah, we did not work with Shah Rukh again because we did not have a good script to pitch him."

 

'People say we gave Shah Rukh a negative role in Baazigar, but according to us, he was the hero'

Deewana had released, and we thought Shah Rukh Khan was a good actor. That's why we wanted to cast him in our film.

Today, people say we gave him a negative role in Baazigar, but according to us, he was the hero.

Shah Rukh not done a film like this before (Shah Rukh had six releases before Baazigar). He was doing a lot of drama and comedy.

When Shah Rukh heard the script, he liked the subject a lot. He was very excited.

We never thought Baazigar would be such a big hit!

When we signed Kajol, Bekhudi had not released. They were still shooting for it.

Shilpa Shetty came through Venus. They told us there is a girl who wants to act in films, so we met her and really liked her.

We wanted a girl who did not have any image, we wanted a fresh face. If it was a bigger star and Shah Rukh would throw her off the terrace, people would start sympathising with her and the whole film would be about that track. We didn't want that to happen.

'Kajol and Shilpa were only 17 years old'

We enjoyed working with Shah Rukh. He's a director's actor. Whatever we wanted from him, he would bring it to the screen.

Kajol and Shilpa were only 17 years old then, and we were tensed, as we were not sure if they would be able to pull off the characters.

We were worried whether they would understand the scenes.

But once they understood the scene, they went with the flow.

Shilpa is a trained dancer, Kajol also danced well. Sarojji (Khan) choreographed the songs.

We had heard that whoever Sarojji works with, she gives them perfect expressions and dance movements and it was so true. Sarojji got the best out of both girls.

We shot Baazigar O Baazigar in Mauritius and we wanted Sarojji to choreograph Shah Rukh and Kajol's combination in it.

Shah Rukh used to work with Sarojji a lot.

Sarojiji choreographed two mind-blowing songs -- one was the title track and the other was Yeh Kaali Kaali Aankhen.

'We did not win Best Film and Best Director'

Anul Malik was doing the music.

He was not doing much work at that time, so he could devote a lot of time to our film.

We explained the situations in the film to him and he would compose the songs.

We did not have many sessions, he had a brilliant collection of songs.

When he would play the tune for us, we knew they would become blockbusters.

When the album released, all the songs did well.

At the Filmfare Awards, Baazigar received 10 nominations of which we won four -- Best Actor for Shah Rukh, Best Music Director for Anu Malik, Best Screenplay for Robin Bhatt, Javed Siddiqui and Akash Khurrana and Best Singer for Kumar Sanu,

We did not win Best Film and Best Director though we did expect to win, but no regrets.

We were at the Filmfare awards, but we left as soon as it was over and came home.

But Shah Rukh, Anu Malik, (Producers) Ratan and Ganesh Jain had an after party and came over to our house on Mohammed Ali Road (south Mumbai) in the middle of the night!

They came with the trophy.

Shah Rukh said something really touching. He said, 'I would not go home and show the trophy to Gauri until I meet you and take your blessings.'

He hugged us and that moment is etched in our hearts.

'Shah Rukh is very selective about his work'

In those days, people saw films by word-of-mouth, the song and a little bit of publicity.

After the film became a hit, people started saying it was based on a Hollywood film (A Kiss Before Dying, starring Matt Dillon and Sean Young), but that is not true.

Just one scene of a boy throwing a girl off the terrace was inspired from that film, nothing else.

We worked with Shah Rukh after that in Badshah because we wanted to do a comedy film with him. The movie had a lot of twists, multiple tracks and a whole lot of confusion.

After Baazigar and Badshah, we did not work with Shah Rukh again because we did not have a good script to pitch him.

Shah Rukh is very selective about his work, and we did not want to go to him with just any script which would not impress him.

'Baazigar is an iconic film!'

Baazigar, Karan Arjun and Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge established him as an actor and Kajol and Shah Rukh as a pair.

He has done many films and many performances.

There are times when his films have not worked, but his performance is always top class.

He is 58 now and just gave two blockbusters with Pathaan and Jawan. We saw both films in theatres and loved them.

We feel proud when we look at Kajol and Shilpa's career graphs because they started with our films.

Even today, they are working and doing age-relevant work and rocking it.

If you watch Baazigar even today, after 30 years of its release, you will enjoy it because of its novel story line.

It was a family drama with a lot of emotions.

Baazigar is an iconic film.