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Subhash Ghai’s 1997 movie, Pardes, starring Shah Rukh Khan and Mahima Chaudhary, might need left the critics a bit divided when it launched nevertheless it managed to stay etched within the recollections of all film-buffs, and particularly Shah Rukh Khan followers. Khan’s character within the movie, Arjun, was not the quintessential hero. He was largely the observer, the non-active issue, a far name from what a 90s hero was purported to be.
Whereas Pardes was basically the story of Ganga, performed by Chaudhary, Khan had stolen a lot of the present. All this and Khan’s portrayal of Arjun boils right down to this one factor – Subhash Ghai’s diktat to the famous person on how he perceived his hero to be.
Subhash Ghai’s memoir, titled ‘Karma’s Baby: The Story of Indian Cinema’s Final Showman’, written with Suveen Sinha, and revealed by HarperCollins India, reveals how the superstardom of Shah Rukh Khan – who had solely lately delivered Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ) – was reined in for Pardes.
To start with, Ghai made it abundantly clear to Khan that the film was about Ganga, and never Arjun. However Khan who had signed a three-film contract with Mukta Arts, beginning with Trimurti, readily agreed to play the position.
However Khan’s portrayal of Raj Malhotra in DDLJ had cemented him because the “romantic hero who might look into any girl’s eyes with an depth that satisfied her that he cherished her and solely her”.
So Ghai needed to difficulty a diktat to the star: “No depth, Shah Rukh, and no love; not for Ganga. Friendship and affection, sure, however no love.”
Ghai’s concept was to maintain the viewers guessing on how the hero and the heroine had been going to get collectively. The climax too was a deviation from the standard romantic sagas – Arjun telling Ganga that he would not love her and that she ought to return house.
The makers went one other step ahead, a lot to the dismay of Khan. They made him put on loose-fitting trousers, and shirts with suspenders. Khan urged Ghai to let him put on denims and T-shirts, which he felt was not going to make a lot of a distinction in distinction to Rajeev (Apurva Agnihotri), the Americanised scion of the enterprise empire, who was all the time well-dressed, was privileged and smug.
“No being a hero, Shah Rukh, nothing filmi,” Ghai instructed Khan.
Arjun’s persona additionally bothered Khan. He was purported to be a subdued character, all the time cowed down by Rajeev. Khan felt being proven as a weak individual did no favours to his stardom and picture. However Ghai defined that Arjun was all the time obligated to Kishori Lal for taking him, an orphan, and giving him a life and a livelihood. Arjun for Ghai couldn’t dream of defying his benefactor and his household.
Ghai instructed Khan to shed DDLJ’s Raj and embrace Pardes’ Arjun.
Pardes witnessed 80 per cent occupancy in theatres for 40 weeks working, the memoir said. Whereas not all critics had been impressed, Pardes clocked a golden jubilee.
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