20 Years Of Khakee EXCLUSIVE: Shridhar Raghavan reveals that Akshay Kumar’s character was originally written as gritty, no-nonsense: “Imagine a young Nana Patekar”; Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s twist was added after producer Keshu Ramsay felt the second half was a bit dry

By Fenil Seta -

February 6, 2024 - 7:20 PM IST

Khakee (2004) completed 20 years on January 23. Starring Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Tusshar Kapoor, the Rajkumar Santoshi-directorial had an enviable star cast that made the film stand out, apart from many other factors. The IMDb page of the action entertainer is full of trivia about what the original cast of the film was. On Khakee’s 20th anniversary, Bollywood Hungama exclusively spoke to writer Sridhar Raghavan on this aspect and he gave an interesting answer.

20 Years Of Khakee EXCLUSIVE: Shridhar Raghavan reveals that Akshay Kumar’s character was originally written as gritty, no-nonsense: “Imagine a young Nana Patekar”; Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s twist was added after producer Keshu Ramsay felt the second half was a bit dry

Shridhar Raghavan began by saying, “Raj ji would know the answer”. He then narrated, “But I’ll tell you something about Akshay’s character. Not many know that Raj ji is half-Tamilian. He loves Chennai and the food there and hence we went there to write the film for a few weeks. I was 29 or 30 and was a bit cocky. I was happy with the script I wrote. One day, Raj ji told me that his friend would come over and I should narrate the script to him. A quiet, unassuming man came and he heard the narration.”

Shridhar Raghavan continued, “He said, ‘Everything works well but I have 1-2 small questions’. He asked, ‘Why can’t the brutal, corrupt cop be funny and charming?’. I had originally written Akshay Kumar’s character as gritty, no-nonsense; imagine a young Nana Patekar! I expressed my reservations but he said, ‘Even they can be funny, right? People are not one-dimensional. So, think about it’. He gave me a few more suggestions.”

Shridhar Raghavan further said, “I asked him who he is and he humbly said that he’s also a writer and director. He turned out to be K Subash, a huge Tamil director. He was an assistant to Mani Ratnam in Nayakan (1987). He made Chatriyan (1990), the biggest Police film made in the South. He knows the police force inside out. He later came to Mumbai and he wrote Chennai Express (2013) and a few more films of Rohit Shetty apart from Raj ji’s Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani (2009). And he was hearing my story while giving me small but perfect feedback. This is how I made Akshay Kumar’s character funny. I was still unsure but Raj ji loved it. He made the character funnier with his dialogues.”

And that’s not all. The talented writer added, “Some great ideas came from Keshu Ramsay ji, the producer. He told me, ‘Beta, second half thoda dry hai. Aap kuch le aao’. That’s when I added the twist of Aishwarya’s character being the villain (laughs)! This twist was not there in the initial drafts. Things got better and better as things progressed as we had Mr Bachchan and other great actors performing the scenes that we wrote. Only Mr Bachchan could have played the role.”