Amitabh Bachchan’s 80th birthday EXCLUSIVE: Ram Gopal Varma reveals that Big B and Khuda Gawah makers had drawn a list of scenes to be cut from the film to make it shorter; distributors ignored the list and cut whatever they desired!

By Fenil Seta -

October 11, 2022 - 4:30 PM IST

In today’s times, digital prints are dominating the scene completely. An exhibitor has to compulsorily play the film as it is and he can’t change anything. But there was a time when physical prints used to be provided to cinema halls everywhere. In these reels, the exhibitor can alter or remove scenes or songs if he so wished. Bollywood Hungama revealed this aspect and spoke to exhibitors who confirmed this practice. For example, since viewers were leaving the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Dil Se (1998) in the first 30 minutes after watching the super-hit song ‘Chaiyya Chaiyya’, the exhibitors placed the song in the climax as well to tempt audiences to sit through the whole film.

Amitabh Bachchan’s 80th birthday EXCLUSIVE: Ram Gopal Varma reveals that Big B and Khuda Gawah makers had drawn a list of scenes to be cut from the film to make it shorter; distributors ignored the list and cut whatever they desired!

Ram Gopal Varma, who was also one of the producers of Dil Se, also spoke on this aspect, during an exclusive interaction with Bollywood Hungama. He then revealed interesting trivia with regards to Khuda Gawah (1992), starring Amitabh Bachchan. This action-drama also starred Sridevi, Nagarjuna, Danny Denzongpa and was directed by Mukul Anand. As Amitabh Bachchan turns 80 years old today, we bring to you this exclusive information.

Ram Gopal Varma revealed, “Mr Bachchan told me an anecdote. The trial of Khuda Gawah was organized for the distributors. All of them had different views on what should be edited out from the film. Mr Bachchan, Mukul Anand and the producer sat together to list down what the Uttar Pradesh (UP) distributor, Bihar distributor etc had to say. Their views were even contrasting. For example, while the UP distributor might have liked a song, the MP distributor would ask for the same song to be deleted! Keeping all their suggestions in consideration, they made a decision on what to remove and what to retain.”

RGV continued, “A list of scenes or shots to be edited was distributed among all the distributors. However, the distributors cut out whatever they desired! Maal toh uske haath mein hai. The logic was that the Bihar distributor feels that he represents Bihar. So if he doesn’t like a particular song, he’ll assume that nobody in Bihar would like that song! Hence, before the digital prints came, once the film went into the hands of the distributors and exhibitors, there was nothing you could do.”

Ram Gopal Varma added, “As per the perspective of Amitabh Bachchan and the makers, 5 distributors liked the song and only the Bihar guy didn’t like it. So the Bihar distributor was told to retain it. He nodded his head and later, he simply cut it off!”

Also Read: BREAKING: As part of Amitabh Bachchan’s 80th birthday celebrations, the tickets for Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Goodbye to be sold for JUST Rs. 80 on October 11