When Sanjay Dutt Left Everyone Shocked On Khalnayak’s Sets By Choking His Co-Actor As A Last Minute Improvisation By Subhash Ghai: “…Uska Gala Daba Kar Maar Deta Hai”
Sanjay Dutt improvised a lot during the shoot of Khalnayak and during one such scene, he started choking his co-actor to everyone's disbelief.
When Sanjay Dutt Left Everyone Shocked On Khalnayak’s Sets By Choking His Co-Actor As A Last-Minute Improvisation ( Photo Credit – IMDb )
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When Subhai Ghai cast Sanjay Dutt in Khalnayak, it was a shocker for his favourites. From Jackie Shroff to Aamir Khan, Nana Patekar to Naseeruddin Shah, a lot of actors were considered to play the lead role in the 1993 film. However, Ghai wanted a man who looked like a tragic hero. Anil Kapoor was desperate to play the lead but Ghai was not convinced. He finally cast Sanjay Dutt as the villainous hero of the film.
And ironically, it played well since in 1993, the year this film was released, Sanju Baba was turned into a national villain with his involvement in the 1993 Bombay Bomb Blast case. At one point, Khalnayak was stuck and everyone believed that amidst such hate and anger, the film will never see the light of the day!
But it was released, and Khalnayak made some great box office records in India and overseas. As the film completes 30 years of release, Subhash Ghai recalled shooting for the film in a conversation with Hindustan Times. He recalled, “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 (Whether he will love or fight, you never know). And fortunately, he played the character exactly like I told him to.”
But during these improvisations, one scene shocked everyone on set. It was while shooting that Sanjay Dutt choked a man by his neck, and none knew about the improvisation. When he groped the man, all were scared and wanted to cut the scene, but Ghai insisted to keep rolling. He recalled shooting for the scene and narrated, “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.”
Another improvisation for the film was in the song Choli Ke Peeche, Sanjay Dutt was asked to wear the eye mask in the last moment, and it worked well for the visual dynamics of the song.
Subhash Ghai in the same interview, revealed why he ditched every other actor to cast Sanjay Dutt in the lead role. Subhash Ghai said, “Once Sanju asked me why I chose him for the role, and I told him it was 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.”
Khalnayak was released in 1993 and went on to become a cult classic. Over the years there have been murmurs and rumours of a Khalnayak remake and often Ranbir Kapoor and Ranveer Singh’s names have cropped up for the lead role. But nothing materialised.
