Rajkumar Hirani is known for making some of the most unique Bollywood films, such as ‘Munna Bhai MBBS’, ‘Lage Raho Munna Bhai’, and ‘3 Idiots’. In a recent interview, Rajkumar shared that he faced some difficulties in the making of the Aamir Khan-starrer ‘PK’, as the movie eventually started showing an uncanny resemblance to Christopher Nolan’s ‘Inception’.
In an interview with Galatta Plus, the filmmaker shared how the similarities became evident when Inception hit theatres during ‘PK’s scripting phase.
‘Inception’ was released while he was working on the script of the Aamir Khan-starrer, and he realised that the movie’s narration was similar to Nolan’s classic. The original concept of ‘PK’ revolved around the idea of altering human experiences and perceptions. The protagonist had the ability to enter people’s minds and modify their past experiences, ultimately reshaping their outlook on life. The idea stemmed from the notion that cynicism is a byproduct of lived experiences, and if those experiences could be altered, a person’s perspective would change as well. “So we realised if you do this, it will look like we have copied Inception,” Hirani explained.To avoid unintentional similarities, the team reworked the script and explored a courtroom setting for the film’s second half. However, before they could finalise it, Akshay Kumar’s ‘OMG – Oh My God’ was released, and Hirani realised his new version resembled that film as well. So he had to keep changing the second half of ‘PK’.
The constant rewrites led to multiple versions of the story, and even after filming, Hirani wasn’t entirely satisfied with the outcome. “Then we shot 20 minutes of it all over again so all these things put together took a lot of time,” he added.
Starring Aamir Khan, Anushka Sharma, Sushant Singh Rajput, and Sanjay Dutt, ‘PK’ became one of the most critically acclaimed movies of all time.
