Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra recalled that in a fit of grief after the film in which Abhishek Bachchan was to debut was cancelled, he set fire to all his research material, the script, and photos of the look test.

Filmmaker Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra was supposed to work with Abhishek Bachchan on his debut film. (Photo: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra/Instagram)

Filmmaker Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra recalled the heartbreak of his debut film, Samjhauta Express, being shut down mere months before its scheduled start date, because the industry felt that its subject matter was too risky. He was set to collaborate on the film with Abhishek Bachchan, for whom it would serve as a long-awaited acting debut. In an interview, the filmmaker said that the industry felt that they were ‘playing with fire’, because the movie would’ve featured Abhishek in the role of a Pakistani terrorist.

Appearing on Shiv Talwar’s YouTube channel, he was asked about the epic journey of his would-be debut film, and he said, “Samjhauta Express, which I’d written with Kamlesh Pandey, was meant to be my debut film, and Abhishek Bachchan’s debut film. We worked on it for a year, and Abhishek kept a diary in which, every day, he would write what the character thinks. It turned out well, but, as the market said, it was a very sensitive subject.”

The filmmaker explained why. He said that the movie would’ve featured Abhishek as a Pakistani terrorist whose heart has been filled with hate for India because his innocent father was framed for being a terrorist himself. Abhishek’s character infiltrates India in an effort to break his father free from jail, and inadvertently develops a bond with a police officer, who is forced to kill him in the climax. His body is repatriated on the Samjhauta Express.

The filmmaker continued, “Until there are these dark holes of hatred between our two nations, we will keep filling them up with the bodies of our children. But they will never get filled. The only way we can build a bridge is through love. The industry felt that for Abhishek Bachchan to play a Pakistani terrorist in his first film would be playing with fire, so the intelligent minds decided… The shoot was called off just three months before (it was supposed to start).” He said that in a fit of grief, he took every bit of research material that he had collected for the movie, including the script and photos of the look test, and lit it all on fire.

In an earlier interview with Galatta Plus, Abhishek had also recalled the story, and had included a bit about pitching the movie to his father, Amitabh Bachchan. “People were just not interested in working with me. I think I met all the directors I could’ve met, and they all very respectfully declined, saying, ‘We don’t want the responsibility of launching you’… I was getting demoralised, and Rakeysh Mehra was only getting ad offers, so we wrote a script ourselves called Samjhauta Express in two months. I was playing a terrorist who comes in search of his father. Once the script was ready, we took it to dad to pitch it to him… We narrated the whole script, there was silence afterwards. My father looked at us, and said, ‘Boys, bakwas script hai, get out’,” Abhishek recalled. He ultimately made his debut with JP Dutta’s Refugee, and went on to work with Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra on the film Delhi-6