Refugee, Check out some unknown facts

21 Years  Of Refugee, As J P Dutta’s Cross-Border  Romance  Completed  21 Years  On June 30,  Subhash  K Jha Reveals  Unknown Facts

1.     Abhishek Bachchan and Kareena  Kapoor  were supposed  to  make their  debut  in other projects: Kareena in Rakesh Roshan’s   Kaho Na …Pyar Hai and  Abhishek Bachchan  in   J P  Dutta’s historical Aakhri Mughal (where  Bachchan Sr was to play  Bahadur shah Zafar).But then Kareena  walked out of Kaho…Na Pyar Hai. And…over to my dear friend J P. Dutta, “I got a  call from my buddy Dabboo(Kareena’s father Randhir Kapoor)asking me to make a film with his  younger daughter. I  can never say no to  Dabboo.  I immediately planned Refugee with  Bebo(Kareena) and Abhishek who are like my own children.”

2.     A cross-border love story ,Refugee  was 3 hours and  30 minutes long. Length has always been   problem  with JP’s cinema. He recalls, “LOC Kargil was more than  four  hours  long after  editing.I refused to cut a  single  shot . Distributors then began to  do their own editing at different centres. With Refugee, the length  though  inordinate,  was  not  a problem.There was so much happening in the  story right till the end.”

3.     There was  no script for Refugee. Explains JP, “I never have a ready hardbound script. The  story  develops  on  location. We were shooting for Refugee in Kutch  . The scenes  and  dialogues were  written  as  the story progressed. I would say, Abhishek and Kareena’s characters  Refugee(his name  was  never mentioned  in the film)   and  Nazneen  wrote their own destinies  in the film. I  was  just  a bystander.”

4.     During the  shooting  of Refugee, Abhishek Bachchan and Kareena’s sister  Karisma were engaged  to be  married. By  the  time  Refugee was  completed they had broken up.  Films which were  planned  with the Abhishek-Kareena  pair had  to be scrapped.

5.     Kareena Kapoor won  all  the debutante awards of 2001. But Abhishek  lost most of them  to Hrithik Roshan in  Kaho Na…Pyar Hai. Says  JP emotionally,  “They are  both  like my own  children. To watch them  grow into such evolved beautiful  artistes  is a matter  of great  pride for me. Abhishek is  still a  part  of my family. He  was  one of the handpicked guests  at  my daughter Nidhi’s wedding in March in Jaipur.”