Filmmaker Imtiaz Ali recently shared an interesting behind-the-scenes detail about his cult film Rockstar, revealing that the tragic fate of Heer, played by Nargis Fakhri, was not part of his original script.
Speaking at a fan meet-up in Mumbai hosted by Laksh Maheshwari, the director said that in his initial draft of the film, Heer was actually meant to survive. However, things changed when the script he had written earlier was accidentally lost.
“I wanted her to be alive. I wanted so many different things in Rockstar. In fact, I had written a full draft, but unfortunately I lost it and then years later when I got the chance of making Rockstar, I tried looking for it and I had lost it. It wasn’t in the computer,” Imtiaz revealed.
When the filmmaker sat down to rewrite the story years later, the narrative evolved in a completely different direction. During this process, he found himself drawing inspiration from the legendary Punjabi love story Heer Ranjha.
“So I wrote it again. This time when I was writing, I don’t know what happened. At the end of it, Heer was no more. I think it was also because I was following Heer Ranjha a lot. That is why the girl’s name was Heer and that she dies before Ranjha, so the movie ends before the death of Jordan,” he explained.
Released in 2011, Rockstar starred Ranbir Kapoor as musician Jordan and went on to become one of the most memorable films of his career. While the film’s emotional ending left audiences heartbroken, it also played a major role in shaping the intense love story that made the movie a cult favourite.
