Pathaan Writer Reveals Shocking Torture Scene That Never Made It to Shah Rukh Khan Film

Shah Rukh Khan starrer Pathaan is doing extremely well at the box office. The movie has broken several box office records so far including the biggest opening day and opening weekend for a Hindi film.

Pathaan currently ranks as the fifth highest-grossing Hindi film and eighth highest-grossing Indian film of all time. It is also the highest-grossing film of SRK’s career and Yash Raj Films. While Siddharth Anand’s directorial had everything from slick action sequences to catchy songs, it was the screenplay and the overall persona of Shah Rukh Khan’s character Pathaan that appealed with the masses. Now Shridhar Raghavan, who was appointed as the mentor writer, reveals that a lot of the stuff that was written didn’t even make it to the film.

In an interview with Indian Express, Shridhar Raghavan talked about a particular torture scene that was part of the trailer but was not included in the film. He shared, “In the trailer there’s a torture sequence that Shah Rukh goes through—maybe they’ll release it later on YouTube—and in the film there were many scenes which we wrote on paper but never shot.

Every character in the JOCR squad has a huge back story, which we wrote. We then thought we don’t require it in this particular film, but it was important for us because someday when we’ll do something else with these characters, it’ll also help the actors because they’d know these characters inside out. It was great fun.”

Recalling Shah Rukh Khan’s flair for action films and how he contributed his ideas to the screenplay, Shridhar Raghavan explained,

“He had tons of inputs, he’s heavily into this genre! When we first started writing he would have a lot of interesting comments. He had literally put down 70-100 pages of his understanding of the genre. I was blown! It became an interesting reference point because when I was reading it, I was like ‘Ya, this is valid, this is useful.’ Like the idea of a team of people who aren’t allowed to serve anymore, and he bands them together while being in a hospital, that came from him if I remember right. A lot of terrific ideas came from him.”

Besides Shah Rukh Khan, the latest blockbuster in town Pathaan also featured Deepika Padukone, Dimple Kapadia, Ashutosh Rana. It is the 4th film in the ambitious Yash Raj spy universe installment and features King Khan as a slick spy who is on a mission to thwart a gruesome attack on the country. The film was released on January 25th.