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Shah Rukh Khan's Dil Se co-star Manisha Koirala reveals he wasn't supposed to die in Mani Ratnam film
Shah Rukh Khan and Manisha Koirala-starrer Dil Se released in 1998. It was directed by Mani Ratnam. It also marked the debut of Preity Zinta.
Mani Ratnam's Dil Se… is often considered one of the finest films of Shah Rukh Khan's career. The romantic drama starred Shah Rukh alongside Manisha Koirala and also marked the screen debut of Preity Zinta. In a recent interview with ANI, Manisha revealed that Shah Rukh’s character in the film wasn’t meant to die in the original script, but the ending was changed at the very last minute. (Also read: Shah Rukh Khan's favourite film isn't DDLJ, K3G, Mohabbatein, or Devdas, but a box office flop: 'He hates love stories')
What Manisha said about Dil Se
In the interview, Manisha said, "Basically, I was supposed to do a film with Ram Gopal Varma, and this came to me at that time. They had other people in mind, and it came to me later. As an artist, I wanted to again explore areas that I had never explored. So when he [Mani Ratnam] said that I would be playing a terrorist, he also specified that he didn’t want me to play it like the hard one …typically. I had to be like a normal girl, but still show her pain and anger going beyond reason. As an artist, for me, that was a great opportunity to explore the negative side of the character. I had always played lovable and good roles, but this was different. It was not typical and I liked it”
She went on to add, “In the original script that we had agreed on, the cause was larger in the sense… that the love for both the characters. In the present version, he goes in and he dies. In the original version, he lets her die, and that was agreeable to all of us, but they changed it last minute."
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Dil Se won positive reviews upon release although it underperformed at the box office. Manisha was last seen in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar. The show was renewed for a second season by Netflix India.
