‘No intensity, no love…’: Subhash Ghai’s diktat to Shah Rukh Khan on playing Arjun in ‘Pardes’

Subhash Ghai’s 1997 movie, Pardes, starring Shah Rukh Khan and Mahima Chaudhary, may need left the critics a bit divided when it launched but it surely 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 principally the observer, the non-active issue, a far name from what a 90s hero was presupposed to be. 

Whereas Pardes was primarily the story of Ganga, performed by Chaudhary, Khan had stolen a lot of the present. All this and Khan’s portrayal of Arjun boils all the way down to this one factor – Subhash Ghai’s diktat to the celebrity on how he perceived his hero to be. 

Subhash Ghai’s memoir, titled ‘Karma’s Youngster: The Story of Indian Cinema’s Final Showman’, written with Suveen Sinha, and printed 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 function. 

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 liked 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 same old romantic sagas – Arjun telling Ganga that he would not love her and that she ought to return dwelling. 

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 at all times well-dressed, was privileged and smug.

“No being a hero, Shah Rukh, nothing filmi,” Ghai informed Khan. 

Arjun’s persona additionally bothered Khan. He was presupposed to be a subdued character, at all times cowed down by Rajeev. Khan felt being proven as a weak particular person did no favours to his stardom and picture. However Ghai defined that Arjun was at all times 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 informed 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.