Remo D’Souza remembers shooting one-page scene with Shah Rukh Khan for Pardes: ‘None of it made it to final cut…’

At the time when Pardes was being shot, Remo was working as a dancer with known choreographer Ahmed Khan. In a conversation with Bollywood Hungama, Remo recalled the time he played a small role in Pardes. He said in Hindi, “I have lots of memories from the film, I think I can write a book on that. But I will say two things. Firstly, starring in this film was a huge deal for me. Subhashji just said that he needed four guys from choreographer Ahmed Khan’s team in the garage scene and I was one of them. I was given lines, I got a good number of dialogues with Shah Rukh Khan. That was very new to me.”

However, D’Souza went on to reveal the unexpected twist that occurred in his role. He said, “When the film was released, I took all my friends to the theatre, declaring that I have done a film with Shah Rukh Khan and Subhash Ghai. However, when we sat to see the film, the first half was over and it didn’t have even one shot of mine. In the second half, thank god, the song ‘Meri Mehbooba’ came and I had a prominent presence in that song. That song saved me, otherwise, my friends would have really beaten me up.”

However, Remo, who has directed films like A Flying Jatt and Race 3, also clarified that now he understands all the nitty-gritty of filmmaking and how shooting and editing a film are completely different things.

Pardes, which graced the silver screen on August 8, 1997, starred Shah Rukh Khan, Mahima Chaudhry, and Apurva Agnihotri in the lead roles. Veteran actors including Alok Nath, Amrish Puri and Himani Shivpuri also played pivotal characters in the movie. Despite receiving mixed reviews upon its release, Pardes emerged as a commercial success.