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Vidhu Vinod Chopra reveals distributors offered him Rs 10 lakh to kill Jackie Shroff instead of Madhuri Dixit and Anil Kapoor in Parinda: ‘I was very poor’

Vidhu Vinod Chopra said that he did not agree to kill Jackie Shroff in the film Parinda because it would not deliver his message.

By: Entertainment Desk
New Delhi | Updated: October 24, 2023 07:28 AM IST

2 min read

Parinda was released in 1989.

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Filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra, who has helmed the upcoming film 12th Fail, has opened up about the 1989 film Parinda. The movie was a game changer for actors Madhuri Dixit, Jackie Shroff and Anil Kapoor. In a recent interview, the director revealed that the distributors didn’t want Anil and Madhuri to be killed at the end of the movie and proposed Rs 10 lakh to have Jackie killed instead. Despite financial difficulties, Chopra declined the offer, and he has now explained his decision.

In an interview with Galatta Plus, the filmmaker said, “When I made Parinda, I was very poor. The distributors saw the film and they got me 10 lakh in cash. They said, ‘This is for you, sir. All you have to do is don’t kill Anil and Madhuri, kill Jackie Shroff.’ And they had pooled in two lakh from each territory and they were raising the price of each territory. I said, ‘No.’ They said, ‘Why?’ I said, ‘Because if I kill Jackie and make them (Anil and Madhuri) live, then I am not saying what I want to say that ‘Violence begets violence.’”

He continued, “They didn’t get it. And I didn’t do it (make the change as requested by distributors). Parinda was honest filmmaking.”

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In the film Parinda, Nana Patekar’s character Anna shoots and kills Madhuri Dixit and Anil Kapoor at the end. The film also starred Anupam Kher in a pivotal role. Parinda won several awards in India and was submitted as India’s entry to the 1990 Oscars in the Best Foreign Language Film category. However, it wasn’t nominated. In 2015, Vidhu Vinod Chopra remade Parinda as a Hollywood film called Broken Horses.

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