Aamir Khan shared that he changed the climax of Rang De Basanti with a story which he had written many years ago.
Powerful storytelling, compelling performances, AR Rahman’s superlative music; Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s 2006 film, Rang De Basanti ticked every box and took the nation by storm when it released in cinema. 18 years later, the ensemble film continues to hold a special place in our hearts for its thought-provoking message and bold narrative.
The climax of Rang De Basanti is one of the most moving moments in Indian cinema. Do you guys know that Rakeysh Omprakash’s script had a different ending for this film?
Aamir Khan, once in a conversation with Cinemaanreal, revealed that he had replaced the original climax of Rang De Basanti with a more impactful ending. The superstar shared that Mehra had envisioned a climax where the protagonists kill the defence minister and attempt to escape, only to die at different locations. However, Aamir wasn’t convinced by it.
The ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’ star recalled, “Originally what the climax was that we kill the defence minister and we try to escape from the city and each one of us gets shot at different places. So I asked Mehra, ‘I love your script (but) the end doesn’t make sense to me because why are they running? Do they feel they have done something wrong?’ So he was like, ‘ya, why are they running?” Throughout the film your parallel is Bhagat Singh… Bhagat Singh didn’t run away. So he got arrested by choice and then expressed what he had to. Even these guys therefore shouldn’t run away.”
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On being asked how he came up with the climax that made its into the film, Aamir revealed, “I had this story I had written many years ago. In my version there were two guys… it reached a situation where they need to communicate with society. So they enter a television studio and take over. They go live so they can start talking to the people. I took that and told Mehra that I had this story and I will now not make it because the climax is gone… But he liked it and we fitted that climax scene into Rang De Basanti.”
Rang De Basanti upon its release, received several awards including the National Award For Best Popular Film. It was also chosen as India’s official entry to the Oscars.
Starring Aamir Khan, Sharman Joshi, Kunal Kapoor, Siddharth, Soha Ali Khan, R. Madhavan, Alice Patten, and Atul Kulkarni, the coming-of-age socio-political drama revolves around a group of friends who seek inspiration from India’s freedom struggle to take a stand against corruption.
