Subhash Ghai recalls why his film ‘Shikhar’ with SRK got shelved

Many times, films have been announced with immense fanfare but only a few get to see the light of day. Veteran filmmaker Subhash Ghai's Shikhar is one of them.

In the 1990s, Ghai announced his ambitious film Shikhar with actors Shah Rukh Khan and Jackie Shroff. The film's mahurat was held in Haryana with great enthusiasm. Unfortunately, the movie did not make it through to the end.

In a recent conversation with ANI, Ghai took a stroll down memory lane, sharing why Shikhar was not made.

" Shikhar had a war backdrop. We had done our mahurat and even recorded a few songs for it. However, we had to shelve the film due to budgetary issues incurred after Trimurti failure… so we thought of making a small film and eventually Pardes happened," he recalled.

Shikhar got scrapped but Ghai did not disappoint his fans. In 1997, he came up with Pardes with none other than Shah Rukh. The film also marked the debut of actress Mahima Chaudhry.

It revolved around the idea of values in Indian and Western culture. Shah Rukh played the lead role in the blockbuster hit and Mahima played his love interest. Khan played the role of Arjun, a man who is settled in a foreign land but still believes in the cultural values of his country.

Apart from the plot, credit also goes to songs such as ‘Yeh Dil Deewana’ and ‘Meri Mehbooba’ for making Pardes one of the evergreen films of Bollywood. The music launch of the film was graced by late politician Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

It's been over 25 years since the film was released and to date, people remember it, especially for its love songs such as 'Yeh Dil Deewana’ and ‘Meri Mehbooba’.