‘Aamir Khan gave away the climax of Rang De Basanti to Siddharth,' says Kunal Kapoor: ‘Anyone else would have said I'm the hero but…'

Indian Express

24-04-2025

The 2006 film Rang De Basanti starred Aamir Khan in one of the lead roles but the film was a true ensemble where every character had something significant to contribute to Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's world. The film also starred Kunal Kapoor, Siddharth, Soha Ali Khan, Sharman Joshi, R Madhavan among others, and in a recent conversation, Kunal revealed that Aamir essentially 'gave away' the film's climax to Siddharth because he felt that instead of everyone taking over the radio station and talking, one guy should take the helm.
Talking on the YouTube channel Khaane Mein Kya Hai, Kunal said, 'I remember when I was working with Aamir Khan on Rang De Basanti, he pretty much gave away the climax to Siddharth. The climax was supposed to be all of us going to the radio station and saying some words but Aamir said, 'Why doesn't just one person just go and speak on the radio and everybody else should be doing what they are doing'.'
Kunal said that at this point, everyone assumed that Aamir would be the person who would do the talking but instead, he chose Siddharth to take the lead as it was more in sync with his character. 'Everyone assumed that it would be him. But he said, 'who is the smartest guy in the group? Like who is the most well spoken guy in the group? It's Siddharth. So let him take over the radio',' he recalled.
Kunal praised Aamir's generosity and said that any other actor would have taken the opportunity for himself but Aamir thought of the greater good and did what was best for the film. 'Any other actor would have said ' Yaar main hero hun. Tum sab ab side pe ho jao. Main abhi jaake radio pe bolta hu. Tum log apna karte raho (I am the hero. All of you get aside. I will go and speak on the radio now, you do your thing) but he was… And his logic is 'If every character in the film works, the film works and if the film works, it's great for me',' he shared.
The climax of Rang De Basanti showed Aamir and Siddharth's characters getting to radio station. Siddharth's character makes a public statement addressing the assassination of the Defence Minister, and eventually, they are both killed by the authorities.