Sriram reveals he almost made SRK starrer Baazigar

Filmmaker Sriram Raghavan, known for movies like Johnny Gaddaar, Ek Hasina Thi, Badlapur, and Andhadhun, has earned a strong reputation for his work. However, there are some films he didn’t end up making that fans still wonder how he would have handled — one of them is

Abbas-Mustan

’s

Baazigar

, the movie that turned Shah Rukh Khan into a superstar.
In a recent chat with Pinkvilla, Sriram shared that during his early struggling days, he had unknowingly started working on adapting the same story that later became Baazigar.
The Surprising Revelation
After reading the novel, the filmmaker instantly felt that he had discovered an incredible story that he had to bring to the big screen. Without thinking about acquiring the rights, he passionately started working on his own adaptation. However, when he narrated his idea to veteran actor Tinnu Anand, he was in for a surprise. Tinnu informed him that the story he was excited about was already being made into a film — and that he himself was acting in it. That film turned out to be Baazigar, which was being adapted by Abbas-Mustan and Venus Films from the novel A Kiss Before Dying.

Watching Baazigar and Reflecting on What Could Have Been
Raghavan recalled watching Baazigar at Mumbai’s Anupam theatre and seeing how the audience reacted with excitement, while he sat quietly, reflecting on what could have been. He shared that if he had made the film, his version would have stayed much closer to the original novel — focusing on a psychopath who kills three women in his quest to become a millionaire, without involving any revenge storyline. Sriram also mentioned that he eventually met Shah Rukh Khan and the directors Abbas-Mustan, and shared with them how he had once planned to adapt the same story.

A Missed Opportunity with Vidhu Vinod Chopra
Later, he pitched his version of the story to filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra, hoping he would produce it. However, Chopra felt the story was lacking commercial elements like songs and suggested making it more "masaledar" or spicy to appeal to a wider audience. Sriram, however, disagreed with changing the tone of the story.