‘Babita sat through full 3-day shoot when Karisma Kapoor-Aamir Khan’s Raja Hindustani kiss was shot’: Director

Raja Hindustani director Dharmesh Darshan recalled in an interview that he was open to having Karisma Kapoor's mother, Babita, watch them film a kissing scene for the film Raja Hindustani.

By: Entertainment Desk

New Delhi | Updated: October 24, 2023 14:55 IST

Aamir Khan and Karisma Kapoor-starrer Raja Hindustani was directed by Dharmesh Darshan. (Photo: Express Archives)

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Describing Karisma Kapoor as an actor who is in touch with her emotions, director Dharmesh Darshan said that he could see that she comes from the family of Raj Kapoor while working with her on the film Raja Hindustani. In an interview, the director said that while Aamir approaches matters clinically, Karisma goes with her gut. He recalled an anecdote from set, when Karisma took him aside to make a creative request regarding a scene.

In an interview with Lehren Retro, Dharmesh spoke about a scene in Raja Hindustani, in which Aamir’s character gets drunk at a party, leaving Karisma’s character embarassed in front of ‘high-society’ guests. Aamir’s character proceeds to pull Karisma’s character’s hair rather violently. But Aamir wasn’t sure about the level of toxicity in the scene. “He told me, ‘No, no, no, let’s not do this. Let me hold her hand (instead)’. I thought Aamir could be right. Maybe I was making (the scene) too masculine unecessarily. I give a lot of respect to my leading ladies, whether I make them kiss or physically expose.”

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But Karisma wanted them to go with the original concept for the scene, and she had a personal reason for why she felt it would be more appropriate. “She took me to a corner, and she said, ‘I request you, I request you. I’ve seen my grandfather do this sometimes, in real life. Forget his films’. The minute she said this, I went to Aamir Khan, and I said, ‘No, you straight pull her hair. We won’t do one take this and one take that’. This was Karisma Kapoor.”

Further praising Karisma for her work ethic, Dharmesh said that she was very professional on set, and didn’t resist the infamous kiss between her and Aamir. “She was very good on set, she was very excited. I could smell it on her. She was so sincere… She’d never done a kissing scene before. I told her what she would be wearing, the background wouldn’t be ‘sexy’. She said, ‘You don’t need to tell me so much’. Then I called Babita ji inside and narrated that sequence. Because Karisma was still very young, and mother can influence, no? And Lolo had a good image; she wasn’t a very noisy girl. Babita ji sat through the full three days of the shoot, and I didn’t send her away.”

Dharmesh said that the producers of the film actually wanted the kiss to be featured on the poster, in an effort to build buzz around it. But Dharmesh ‘didn’t allow it’. Released in 1996, Raja Hindustani emerged as a big hit.

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Aamir Khan Babita Karisma Kapoor

‘Babita sat through full 3-day shoot when Karisma Kapoor-Aamir Khan’s Raja Hindustani kiss was shot’: Director

Raja Hindustani director Dharmesh Darshan recalled in an interview that he was open to having Karisma Kapoor's mother, Babita, watch them film a kissing scene for the film Raja Hindustani.

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