Bollywood Movies With Alternate Endings You Never Saw: ‘Baazigar’, ‘Sholay’ And More

Written By: Entertainment Desk

Oct 03, 2026 16:04 IST ⓘ

Bollywood endings that were filmed, screened or changed before release.

Imagine ‘Sholay’ ending with Gabbar Singh dead at the Thakur’s feet. Or Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Baazigar’ character walking away in handcuffs instead of dying in his mother’s arms. These are not fan theories. One ending was filmed and suppressed for decades; the other was shot before its directors decided that the heartbreak worked better. Bollywood’s alternate endings have several different lives. Some survive in a film archive. Some played abroad while Indian audiences watched a different last reel. Others were screened for a handful of people and vanished, or made it no further than a script.

Here are 15 cases with a documented alternative, and exactly how far each one got. Spoilers for every film follow, naturally.

1. ‘Bobby’ (1973)

Raj Kapoor’s ‘Bobby’, released on September 28, 1973, put Rishi Kapoor’s Raj and Dimple Kapadia’s Bobby at the centre of a love story divided by class and angry parents, played by Pran and Prem Nath. Its ending sends the couple off a cliff, but the fathers rescue them and finally set aside their feud. Imagine leaving the theatre after watching both teenagers drown instead.

That was the ending in the original script, according to Prem Nath’s son Monty. He recalled his father proposing the rescue while the team was on location, with the decision left to Raj Kapoor. A 2012 Rediff report says Raj Kapoor shot both climaxes, although no public print of the tragic version has been established. The source of the change was Prem Nath’s suggestion to give the lovers a chance. Monty’s account also offers a lovely detail: in his proposed rescue, each father saves the other man’s child.

2. ‘Sholay’ (1975)

The ‘Sholay’ most people grew up with ends after Sanjeev Kumar’s Thakur overpowers Amjad Khan’s Gabbar and the police take the dacoit away. Ramesh Sippy’s film, released on August 15, 1975, also stars Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan as Veeru and Jai, with Hema Malini and Jaya Bachchan as Basanti and Radha. After all Gabbar has taken from Ramgarh, his arrest feels like a strangely restrained final beat.

Ramesh Sippy actually filmed the harsher payoff: Thakur kills Gabbar with the spikes concealed in his shoes. During the Emergency, the censor board objected to a former police officer administering his own revenge, and the climax was reshot. Unlike many lost endings, this one survived. The Film Heritage Foundation found it among the surviving film elements and restored it for a June 2025 screening at Bologna’s Il Cinema Ritrovato festival. It reached Indian cinemas in the restored ‘Sholay: The Final Cut’ in December 2025. For half a century, the most famous showdown in Hindi cinema had a second answer hiding in the cans. Ramesh Sippy’s IFFI account and the Film Heritage Foundation’s restoration record establish the change and the surviving footage.

3. ‘Ardh Satya’ (1983)

Govind Nihalani’s ‘Ardh Satya’, released on November 18, 1983, follows Om Puri’s tormented policeman Anant Welankar as corruption and his own anger close in around him. Smita Patil plays Jyotsna, while Sadashiv Amrapurkar is the gangster Rama Shetty. In the released film, Anant strangles Shetty, then rides to the police station to surrender. It is a violent choice, and one he will have to live with.

Vijay Tendulkar wrote a more final defeat: Anant dies by suicide, and Jyotsna comes to his home and finds him. Govind Nihalani told Rediff that he shot and edited both endings, then watched both complete versions with Vijay Tendulkar in a private screening. He found the suicide too defeatist; after seeing the cuts, Tendulkar agreed that Anant surviving to face the consequences served the character better. This is one of the strongest documented cases on the list, even though Nihalani says the unused footage is now lost. Its only confirmed screening was for the director and writer.

4. ‘Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak’ (1988)

Aamir Khan’s Raj and Juhi Chawla’s Rashmi cannot outrun their families’ feud in Mansoor Khan’s ‘Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak’, released on April 29, 1988. Rashmi is shot, and Raj dies beside her. For a romance descended from Romeo and Juliet, that devastation became the point. Yet producer Nasir Hussain wanted his son Mansoor to have another option.

They shot one. In the happy version, the gunman kills Rashmi’s relative Randhir, played by Goga Kapoor, instead; Raj and Rashmi survive. Mansoor and Aamir recounted in a 2026 conversation that the alternate scene played awkwardly on set and was never even edited into a cut. It did not appear in a cinema, test screening or known home release. Mansoor stayed with the tragedy despite pressure for a crowd-pleasing finish. The filmed happy ending exists in the makers’ account, but the completed happy film never did.

5. ‘Baazigar’ (1993)

In Abbas-Mustan’s ‘Baazigar’, released on November 12, 1993, Shah Rukh Khan’s revenge-driven Ajay/Vicky destroys lives, including that of Shilpa Shetty’s Seema, while falling for her sister Priya, played by Kajol. When the score is settled, Ajay dies in the arms of his mother, played by Raakhee. It is a finish that gives the antihero no neat escape from what he has done.

There was a filmed way out, though hardly a carefree one: police arrive and arrest him, leaving him alive. Mustan told PTI that Raakhee and distributors had worried audiences would be let down if the hero died, so the directors shot both versions. Abbas-Mustan felt the arrest short-circuited the character’s emotional journey. Raakhee and the distributors accepted the death after seeing the completed film. The arrest ending was a production option, with no verified public release. SRK’s breakthrough villain therefore came with a genuinely filmed escape route, just not one his directors chose to use.

6. ‘Aankhen’ (2002)

Vipul Amrutlal Shah’s ‘Aankhen’, released on April 5, 2002, gives Amitabh Bachchan’s vengeful bank manager Vijay Singh Rajput a deliciously risky plan: recruit three blind men to rob his former workplace. Akshay Kumar, Arjun Rampal and Paresh Rawal play the recruits; Sushmita Sen plays their trainer. In the Indian cut, Rajput is in police custody and the surviving robbers discover that the missing jewels are inside their late friend Ilias’s harmonium. Case closed, more or less.

Overseas viewers got an actual different release print. Rajput gets free and reappears as the two survivors prepare to leave by train, turning their apparent victory into an unresolved confrontation. Vipul Amrutlal Shah confirmed the two releases and said the team opted for the tidier Indian ending after a trial screening raised concerns about leaving the story open. He later regretted that choice. Unlike the unseen ‘Baazigar’ cut, the ‘Aankhen’ alternative was shot and shown to paying audiences; whether you ever saw it depended on which version reached your cinema. Shah discussed the India/overseas split as early as 2003.

7. ‘Koi... Mil Gaya’ (2003)

When Jadoo leaves Earth in Rakesh Roshan’s ‘Koi... Mil Gaya’, released on August 8, 2003, Hrithik Roshan’s Rohit retains the abilities his alien friend gave him. That final reassurance matters to Rohit, to Preity Zinta’s Nisha, and eventually to the ‘Krrish’ films. Rekha plays Rohit’s mother Sonia. But the goodbye originally had a steeper price.

Rakesh Roshan said he shot both endings: in the sad one, Jadoo leaves and Rohit loses the powers too. He showed the options privately to filmmakers including Karan Johar, Subhash Ghai, Aditya Chopra and Yash Chopra. Yash thought the sadder version suited the story; Aditya argued that audiences would want the happiness of seeing Rohit retain the gift. Rakesh Roshan chose the latter. The powers-gone ending was filmed and privately screened, but there is no verified general release of it. One editorial choice also made a superhero sequel much easier to imagine.

8. ‘Delhi 6’ (2009)

In the theatrical ‘Delhi 6’, released on February 20, 2009, Abhishek Bachchan’s Roshan survives the violence of a mob and the film closes on a hopeful note. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s ‘Delhi 6’ ensemble includes Sonam Kapoor as Bittu, Waheeda Rehman as Roshan’s grandmother and Rishi Kapoor. The survival was a departure from Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s original conception, which had Roshan die and his father scatter his ashes in the Ganga.

This alternative is unusual because it did not remain an abandoned draft. After the film’s disappointing run, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra shot a new opening and revised the ending so Roshan does not recover from the mob attack, according to his account in his autobiography. That revised version was screened at the Venice film festival and shown to the National Film Awards jury. It was not the ending in the original wide theatrical release, and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra has said he would like the public to see his preferred cut in cinemas. In this case, the director’s other ending became a real, screened version only after audiences had already met the first one.

9. ‘Ekk Deewana Tha’ (2012)

Gautham Vasudev Menon’s ‘Ekk Deewana Tha’, released on February 17, 2012, casts Prateik Babbar as aspiring filmmaker Sachin and Amy Jackson as Jessie, the woman he cannot quite stop loving. Most audiences saw a conventional, feel-good reunion. Gautham Vasudev Menon also made a last-reel change for a more bittersweet director’s cut, in which the two do not end up together.

Both endings were filmed and, unusually, both were intended to be shown theatrically at the same time. Fox Star Studios announced the mainstream version for more than 500 screens and the director’s cut for roughly 20 selected cinemas. Gautham Vasudev Menon explained the arrangement to Rediff, calling his preferred ending more of a coming-of-age story than a standard romantic payoff. Here the alternate ending was no secret extra on a shelf; it was a ticket you had to find. The different audience sizes explain why so many people remember only the reunion.

10. ‘Raanjhanaa’ (2013)

Aanand L. Rai’s ‘Raanjhanaa’, released on June 21, 2013, ends with Dhanush’s Kundan dying after the political violence that has engulfed his love for Zoya, played by Sonam Kapoor. Abhay Deol also stars. The tragedy was central enough that changing it later caused a controversy of its own.

For the August 1, 2025, Tamil re-release, titled ‘Ambikapathy’, rights holder Eros introduced an AI-altered finale in which Kundan opens his eyes and survives. This was a real theatrical version, but it was not an alternate scene shot in 2013 or a lost Aanand L. Rai director’s cut. Aanand L. Rai said he was neither consulted nor involved, while Reuters reported on the alteration and the public response. Its reason was the distributor’s decision to offer a happier reinterpretation for the re-release, a change the original filmmaker opposed. If the earlier examples show how a climax can change before opening night, this one shows it can be changed long after the film has entered viewers’ memories.

11. ‘Piku’ (2015)

Shoojit Sircar’s ‘Piku’, released on May 8, 2015, lets the affection between Deepika Padukone’s Piku and Irrfan Khan’s Rana stay delightfully unlabelled. After the journey with Piku’s father Bhaskor, played by Amitabh Bachchan, Rana and Piku end up playing badminton outside her home. Then the film trusts us to wonder what might happen next.

Irrfan wanted one extra step. Shoojit Sircar recalled in April 2026 that the actor asked to follow Piku into the house, making their closeness a little more explicit. Shoojit Sircar filmed the moment as an option and later showed Irrfan why he preferred the badminton ending without it. The alternative was shot and privately shown to its advocate, but was not in the released film. It is a tiny change beside a death or an arrest, yet it would have answered precisely the romantic question the actual finale leaves hanging.

12. ‘Pink’ (2016)

In Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury’s ‘Pink’, released on September 16, 2016, Minal, Falak and Andrea survive a bruising court battle and the judgment goes against Rajvir and his allies. Taapsee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari and Andrea Tariang play the three women; Amitabh Bachchan plays their lawyer, Deepak Sehgal, and Angad Bedi plays Rajvir. The verdict gives the women vindication without pretending the ordeal was easy.

The original written ending favoured Rajvir instead. Producer Shoojit Sircar initially felt that defeat would reflect what women often face in real life and force audiences to confront it. But screenwriter Ritesh Shah’s wife Saba challenged the draft, arguing that the courtroom journey had earned a different release of emotion. As recounted in ‘PINK: The Inside Story’, Shoojit Sircar changed the judgment while the court scenes were being filmed. There is no documented shot or screened cut of the women losing: the alternate appeared in the script and the makers’ account, not on a cinema screen.

13. ‘Ittefaq’ (2017)

Abhay Chopra’s ‘Ittefaq’, released on November 3, 2017, places two witnesses at the centre of a double murder investigation. Sidharth Malhotra plays novelist Vikram Sethi, Sonakshi Sinha plays Maya, and Akshaye Khanna is Dev, the officer sorting through their incompatible stories. The released finale reveals that Vikram killed both his wife Katherine and Maya’s husband Shekhar; by the time Dev puts the pieces together, Vikram is preparing to leave India.

The production filmed alternate climaxes, but neither the producer nor cast has publicly established the exact plot of the unused versions. Producer Kapil Chopra confirmed they were shot, and Sonakshi explained that the decoys were meant to prevent crew members from knowing which climax would be released and leaking the killer. The alternatives were filmed for secrecy, not publicly offered as rival cuts.

14. ‘Tumbbad’ (2018)

Rahi Anil Barve’s ‘Tumbbad’, released on October 12, 2018, follows Sohum Shah’s Vinayak Rao and his son Pandurang, played by Mohammad Samad, into the terrible bargain of Hastar’s treasure. In the released ending, Vinayak is consumed by the curse. Pandurang refuses the gold his father offers, burns him and walks away, apparently ending the family’s cycle of greed.

Sohum Shah confirmed that another ending was shot. In that version, Pandurang does not burn Vinayak. He tries to gather his father’s body into a jute bag and flees with it. Sohum said the team selected the burning scene because it made a stronger emotional connection. The alternate sequence existed on film, but there is no verified official release of that full ending.

15. ‘Housefull 5’ (2025)

Tarun Mansukhani’s ‘Housefull 5’, released on June 6, 2025, turned a cruise-ship inheritance scramble into a murder mystery. Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh and Abhishek Bachchan lead a cast that also includes Jacqueline Fernandez, Sonam Bajwa, Fardeen Khan and Chitrangada Singh. There was no single ending quietly replaced during editing: producer Sajid Nadiadwala deliberately released ‘Housefull 5A’ and ‘Housefull 5B’ together.

In 5A, Fardeen’s Dev is revealed as a murderer alongside Abhishek’s character; in 5B, Chitrangada’s Maya takes Dev’s place as his accomplice. The preceding film is largely the same. Nadiadwala explained that he wanted viewers in different cinemas to discover different culprits. Both endings were filmed and publicly released. If you and a friend argued over the killer afterwards, you might both have been describing the movie you actually saw.

The fun of these endings is not simply that the plot could have gone left instead of right. A censor’s objection changed ‘Sholay’. A private screening saved Anant Welankar from suicide. An actor wanted to walk through a doorway in ‘Piku’. And the final word on ‘Aankhen’ depended on where you bought your ticket. Even a famous ending is sometimes just the version that reached us first.