32 years of Baazigar EXCLUSIVE: “Shah Rukh Khan said, ‘I will carry it off’. Only he had confidence in the film,” reveals writer Javed Siddiqi; also shares how he thought of “Haar kar jeetne wale ko…” dialogue

Filmmaker duo Abbas-Mustan’s iconic Baazigar completed 32 years yesterday. The film was not only a major success at the box office but also a career-defining project for its lead actor Shah Rukh Khan. Among various things, the movie is known for its dialogue, “Kabhi kabhi jeetne ke liye kuchh haarna bhi padta hai, aur haar kar jeetne wale ko Baazigar kehte hain (Sometimes, you need to lose something in order to win and a person who does that is called Baazigar).”

The line was the brainchild of the veteran writer and literary figure Javed Siddiqi. In an exclusive chat with Bollywood Hungama, he revealed how he thought of this dialogue. “Abbas-Mustan said that once the sequence of the race gets over, there should be a line where there should be a double innuendo – what has been said is one thing but its meaning has to be something else. Then I came up with this line and it worked big time,” he said.

Siddiqi pointed out that if a film works, everything about it works. “I always keep giving this example,” he said. “People have been repeating the lines from Sholay, which are actually meaningless. Where is the dialogue-baazi in a line like, ‘Kitne aadmi the?’? Similarly, how did ‘Arre O Sambha’ become popular? There is no magic of dialogue baazi in this dialogue. But because people like the film, they like its characters and once they like the characters, they like everything about them.”

Siddiqi recalled that he knew SRK even before they both got associated with this film. “I had developed a bond with him before Baazigar,” he said. “Me and my partner Robin Bhatt used to write movies together. We had a permanent room in a hotel, which was in Khar. Shah Rukh often used to visit us because at that time he wasn’t so busy.”

However, Siddiqi hasn’t met Khan for long now. “I am semi-retired. I don’t go out much and don’t attend filmi parties too. He is a very nice, educated and highly civilized man. He has a lot of love,” he said.

Siddiqi also touched upon the fact that a lot of people from the industry advised the makers to not go ahead with something as unconventional at that point of time like Baazigar. “When the project started, a lot of people said that you have made a negative character into a hero or you are making a hero into a villain. They also pointed out that he commits five murders in the film. Most of the people were shocked and they said that the audience won’t accept this film,” he said.

The veteran writer added, “But only one person had confidence in the film and he was Shah Rukh. He said, ‘I will carry it off.’ He has something different in him. He is also very hardworking when it comes to preparing for his role.”

Produced by Venus Movies, Baazigar also starred Kajol, Dalip Tahil, Shilpa Shetty, Ananth Mahadevan and Johnny Lever.

Also Read: 30 years of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge EXCLUSIVE: Writer Javed Siddiqi recalls a senior person from YRF saying during the film’s making, “Is this a film? It’s a travelogue”; also reveals how he coined the iconic ‘Bade bade deshon mein…’ dialogue

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