Deepak Tijori reveals he had told Abbas-Mustan about ‘A Kiss Before Dying’ but they went behind his back and offered ‘Baazigar’ to Shah Rukh Khan – Times of India

‘Baazigar’ released in 1993, directed by Abbas-Mustan was a huge turning point in Shah Rukh Khan’s career. While the film saw him in a negative character, it revolved around him and it changed the way, Hindi cinema heroes were also portrayed in movies. But Deepak Tijori has some story to say regarding the film.
The actor who had worked with Abbas-Mustan in ‘Khiladi’, was the one who told them about ‘A Kiss Before Dying’ and suggested that they should make the Hindi remake of it. The director duo loved his idea and decided that they would make the film together with Deepak. So, the idea of ‘Baazigar’ originally came to him and Tijori was very keen about playing this character, he revealed in an interview with Bollywood Hungama. The actor further revealed that he had approached Pahlaj Nihalini to produce the film and pitched the idea to him. Even he loved it. When the producer met Abbas-Mustan, he told Deepak that there’s a twist in his story.

He said that Abbas-Mustan have approached Shah Rukh Khan for the film with a different producer on board. Since Deepak was friends with SRK at that point, he called and told him that he should accept the offer. While Tijori confessed that it pinched him, Abbas-Mustan apologised to him and said that they would compensate. The actor further asked them if they would surely compensate and make a film with him, otherwise Nihalini has an offer which he would want to take up. The directors never compensated though. That’s when Deepak got a reality check that ‘compensate’ is a common word in the industry but it never happens.
While he regrets not doing ‘Baazigar’, he feels that backing out was the right thing to do. The film was later made with Kajol and Shilpa Shetty in lead roles alongside Shah Rukh.