5 min readHyderabadJun 27, 2026 04:31 PM IST
When K Bhagyaraj was approached to direct a Hindi film in the mid-1980s, his name was already familiar to Hindi audiences, even if his face wasn’t, since several of his Tamil scripts had already been remade in Hindi. This time, though, producer A Purnachandra Rao, known in the industry as Poorna Chandra, wanted Bhagyaraj himself to direct, not just write. Bhagyaraj, who had built his reputation on family dramas with light comic touches, was hesitant at first, given how completely action films dominated Hindi cinema at the time, and kept asking Rao to wait for the right moment.
When Poorna Chandra persisted, Bhagyaraj eventually gave him an outline, which Poorna Chandra liked enough to ask for a full screenplay. That story had already taken shape once before, as Oru Kaithiyin Diary, a 1984 Tamil film directed by Bharathiraja and written by Bhagyaraj, starring Kamal Haasan in a dual role. Poorna Chandra wanted the Hindi version built around Amitabh Bachchan instead, and he was brought to Chennai to hear the story. Amitabh Bachchan liked it, but had reservations about whether a director with no action film background could pull off a project on this scale. According to Bhagyaraj’s own account of the meeting, Poorna Chandra stepped in to vouch for him, pointing out that Bhagyaraj had conceived the entire subject himself and clearly knew what he was doing.
Amitabh Bachchan was an ‘obedient student’
Once shooting began on what would become Aakhree Raasta, released in 1986 under Rao’s Lakshmi Productions banner, Amitabh Bachchan tested his director early. Despite having the complete script in hand on day one, he asked Bhagyaraj to talk him through exactly how a scene would be shot, a request Bhagyaraj read as a check on his preparedness. He passed almost immediately, with Amitabh Bachchan reportedly telling him, “I understand. I think I can manage now,” before the explanation was even finished. He described Bachchan as an “obedient student”.
Since Bhagyaraj did not speak Hindi, he wrote the screenplay in Tamil, had it translated, and would personally act out each scene every morning so Amitabh Bachchan could judge whether the emotion had survived translation, a routine Amitabh Bachchan apparently found amusing enough to joke about openly on set.
Also Read: Bhagyaraj Death Updates: Rajinikanth hugs son Shanthanu; CM Vijay pays last respects
‘We had a heated argument’
The collaboration’s sharpest disagreement came over a single scene set in a graveyard, where a father confronts his estranged son beside the mother’s grave. He shared with Rediff’s Shobha Warrier, “We had an argument about it. I wanted the father and son to have a heated argument in English in the graveyard. He disagreed with me totally. He said viewers would not be able to understand so much in English. I refused to budge.”
Finally, it was decided that the scene would be shot in English after Bachchan thought about it, and decided to go ahead with the director’s vision.
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Bachchan said, ‘You are right’
And to everyone’s wonder, the gamble worked. “He called me at midnight one day and said, ‘Sir, I watched how the audience reacted to that particular scene. When I started talking in English, it was from the front bench that the first clap started. It was only after that the educated class clapped. You are right. You judged the pulse of the audience so well,” Bhagyaraj recalled. He added, with some amusement, that his wife Jaya had told him the film felt less like an Amitabh Bachchan film and more like a Bhagyaraj film altogether.
Aakhree Raasta also featured Jaya Prada and Sridevi alongside Amitabh Bachchan, with Anupam Kher, Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Dalip Tahil and Om Shivpuri in supporting roles, and music composed by Laxmikant-Pyarelal.
Amitabh Bachchan’s dual role as a wrongly imprisoned man and the police officer son he is unknowingly reunited with is still counted among his more memorable performances from the era.
thank you and my gratitude .. it was a great experience and a wonderful story .. K Bhagyaraj , new to me but so effective in his direction ..🙏🙏 https://t.co/LytYTmT1fj
— Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) June 6, 2019
Years later, marking the film’s 33rd anniversary in 2019, Amitabh Bachchan returned to the experience publicly when a fan praised his acting in the film, writing on social media, “Thank you and my gratitude, it was a great experience and a wonderful story, K Bhagyaraj, new to me but so effective in his direction,”
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