Rakesh Roshan On Making ‘Karan Arjun’: If Salman Got 10 Punches, Shah Rukh Also Got 10

Karan Arjun is a film that exists in a space where myth, melodrama, and mass appeal collide with stunning force. In 1995, the masala action film featured two of Bollywood's biggest stars, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan, on-screen together; not as cameos, but as co-leads in an epic saga of revenge, reincarnation, and raw emotion. Today, that kind of pairing feels almost impossible, given how fiercely the industry guards its star power.

Even back then, Karan Arjun was a commercial gamble; many distributors pulled out and there was widespread resistance to mounting this film. What happened next is now the stuff of legend.

With the film now set for a re-release on November 22, The Hollywood Reporter India asked director Rakesh Roshan about the magic of Karan Arjun, why it still resonates, and what its return to cinemas says about the evolving tastes of modern audiences and the changing landscape of Bollywood action.

The conversation has been edited for clarity.

It’s almost been 30 years since Karan Arjun released. When you look back at the shooting of the film, what is the most memorable thing you remember?

The most memorable thing was that nobody believed in the subject, but they all worked in the film. It was my task — a big task — to make the film believable to the audience. Once the audience lapped it up, everybody connected to the film came to me and said, ‘We are sorry that we didn't believe in it. But now, the way we have made it, we believe in it.’ That was the big plan,

Tell us about getting both Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan together in the film. How did you make that happen? And how did you decide who was going to be Karan and who was going to be Arjun?

I wanted Salman because of his physique. He had a well-built physique and his eyes spoke. He speaks even when he is not saying dialogues. I always thought that he was a quieter person, and Karan is a more reserved person in the film. Whereas Arjun is a little boisterous, so I thought of getting Shah Rukh. Both had romance in the film, and both had the same amount of action... but it looked believable.

How did you convince both of them to come on board?

I made them listen to the subject. Shah Rukh told me at the very first instance, ‘I don't believe in reincarnation. But if you're saying that you want me to do it, I will.’

He said that he would leave it to me and that I would have to guide him because he was not convinced.

Tell us about the reincarnation trope — why was it being used in that era? Was it commercially-driven to justify the double role, or did it have a deeper cultural connection to society?

Reincarnation had been a theme before, even before Karan Arjun — but it was always part of  love stories. A couple would die in a car crash and then they would be reborn and fall in love again. So I thought: Why not use this for a mother-and -child story? A mother’s love is stronger! When the children are being killed in front of her, she goes to the temple and prays to God. She cannot accept this. She says, ‘You have to return my sons.’ It was the conviction with which Rakhee enacted that scene that convinced the audience.

You said that you were the only one who was convinced with the script. Did you anticipate that it would become this cult film?

No, nobody did. We can only make films. Every film has its own chemistry when it releases with the audience. I never thought that it was going to be such a phenomenal success; on public demand, we used to have 6 am shows, which was not common in those times.

There were these two romantic heroes doing an action-oriented film. Many of my distributors abandoned the film because of this. But based on audience demand, they had a 1.30 pm show after the 12 pm show as well.

Sometimes there is chemistry. Sometimes there is a karishma (miracle)!

Tell us about collaborating with your brother Rajesh Roshan on the music for this film.

It is a very unique story, an unbelievable story. I narrated the whole script to Rajesh and to my songwriter Indeevar. You will see that all the songs take the movie forward, and they are telling the story. Even the songwriter wrote it with conviction — these are very dialogue-oriented songs.

When everybody puts their best foot forward, something happens in the film. 

Is it hard to work with family?

No, not at all. On the contrary, we have open fights that we can't have outside. If I work with another music director, I have to be very restrained. I have to think ten times about what I can and cannot say.

The same thing happens with me and my son. When we are working, we argue so much. Not on the set, but while we are writing the script. We usually arrive at a resolution from a place of fighting with each other. But then again, I can only fight with him and he can only fight with me.

Tell us about pulling off the two-hero film — because it was such a potent trope in the past and now we’re seeing it disappear.

Since I am also an actor, I knew the difficulties of staging a two-hero movie. When I wrote the script, I weighed it very carefully. If Shah Rukh wasn’t saying anything, Salman would also not be able to say anything. If Shah Rukh had one song, so did Salman. If Salman got 10 punches and 10 blows, Shah Rukh would also get 10 punches and 10 blows. Both characters were equally balanced. Nobody complained on the set because everyone knew that they were going to get an equal share.

Today, very rarely you come across films in which both heroes are balanced properly. It is a very difficult task.

Now that the film is being re-released, how do you think Karan Arjun has aged?

This is a film that is going to test today's audience. There’s a lot of emotion to it. If in that era, 30 years back, it became such a big blockbuster, we will have to see whether or not it will work with today's generation. If it works, that means that there are still emotional subjects to be explored, and we have to make these kinds of films. And if it doesn't work, that means this era is over.

If the audience wants a curtain type of movie, you have to make that. You have to make the kala kala picture (dimly-lit movies), in which you can't even see their faces properly. You have to add some action, but no songs… they must all be background songs.

You know, songs are what give the heroes recall value. You remember Dev Anand, Raj Kapoor and Rajesh Khanna because of their songs. I think that up until Hrithik’s generation, you still had good songs in films. After that, they started fading away.

So the re-release will tell us if the audience still wants emotions and songs, or if their tastes have completely changed.

Because of Pathaan last year, Karan Arjun saw this big resurgence in word-of-mouth popularity. You've already spoken about how action films are made these days, but what do you think has changed fundamentally?

We used to do everything on the set or on location. We used to have one stuntman and no green screen at that time. Today, there is a lot of safety protocol — the hero does not do anything. It's very easy now to conceive of difficult action sequences. In those days, when we did it, we could only execute what was possible in real time. It was more fun! Now it is more technologically-driven and easier.