30 years of Aankhen: There was no bound script and the entire film was written on set

When Anurag Kashyap said that Aankhen was the RRR of its time, it was a statement strong enough to tell how great a movie that was. As the cult film completes 30 years, we talk to the writer of the film Anees Bazmee, who tells us interesting incidents that happened before and during the filming, which starred Govinda and Chunky Pandey in the lead and was directed by David Dhawan

Where’s the villain?

I had not written this film and there was a rough idea in mind. Par jo humaare producer hain Pahlaj Nihalani sir, woh chhadi lekar kaam karne wale the. He asked to start the shoot without a bound script in hand. Toh poori film set par likhi gai thi. We shot for the hero-heroine sequences, the songs and everything else and then, I ran back to my village kyuki tab tak villain ka kya krna hain samjh nahi aaya tha.

David wanted to shoot the sequences of the villain and would question me about me. Par villain mere samajh nahi aarha tha. So David ke darr ki wajah se main gaao chala gya. I wanted to have a strong role for the negative character because comedy films at that time did not have a a strong crime angle. But came back when I got an idea to write. The film turned out to be a cult. It was my best script ever.

Today, people have become very cautious and think a lot. Us waqt jo likha hai aur writer and director ko pasand hai wahi rehta tha. Everyone has become so insecure. Also, I believe this is the most organic way to write a comedy. Whatever comes naturally would always be better than thinking a hundred times about the what would sound funny or not.

Last minute changes in the cast

Film ke andar humne do bahut badi heroines ko sign kiya tha. Par jab me mahurat par pahucha toh waha do nayi ladkiya thi — Raageshwari Loomba and Ritu Shivpuri — and I got the shock of my life. I asked our producer Pahlaj about it and he told me some misunderstanding happened with the heroines. I was very disappointed because those two were good actresses and I had written a fabulous role for them. I even complained about it to David that I do not appreciate it. I was insecure in the beginning because I did not know how these two new girls will perform. So, I rewrote a track where there was a love triangle between Kader Khan, Bindu and Shakti Kapoor. Woh hamesha se tha film mein, but mene use aur lamba kar dia aur heroines ke track ko kam kar dia tha. But when I saw there performances, I was surprised. Both of them were so good that I really wanted to undo the changes that were done but it was too late for that.