Director Sanjay Gupta has revisited the making of his 2002 action thriller Kaante and revealed an interesting detail about the film’s dialogues and Amitabh Bachchan’s character. Speaking to Hussain Zaidi, Gupta recalled that several abusive words had originally been written into the script, but Bachchan made it clear that his character would not be subjected to such language.

Gupta said he accepted Bachchan’s condition but pointed out that it did not mean the other characters could not abuse each other. The filmmaker also revealed that some of the abusive dialogues were later tweaked during the censor process.

“Abuses were written in the script but then we didn’t use them. Amitji said that nobody would abuse me, so I said, ‘Okay, sir. That doesn’t mean the others won’t abuse each other.’ Later, we tweaked those parts during the censor process as well,” Gupta said in his conversation with Hussain Zaidi.

Amitabh Bachchan had a specific condition for Kaante

In an earlier conversation with SCREEN, Gupta had recalled how Bachchan took him aside during the making of the film and told him that he won’t use abusive language. The director said he had no problem with the request.

Gupta had recalled Bachchan telling him, “Sanjay I won’t abuse, that’s one thing I’ve never done, so I won’t do it. If someone else is abusing, then I’ve no problem”.

Kaante had plenty of profanity in its original script

Even before the film reached theatres, Gupta had acknowledged that the script contained a considerable amount of profanity.

In a 2002 interview with Rediff, when asked whether Kaante contained foul language given its action-thriller setting, Gupta replied that the film had “a lot of profanities”. At the time, the film had not yet gone through the censor process.

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The censor process eventually resulted in changes to some of the dialogues.

When Sanjay Gupta narrated Kaante to Amitabh Bachchan

Sanjay Gupta has previously recalled how nervous he was while narrating Kaante to Amitabh Bachchan. Speaking to Cyrus Broacha, he said Sanjay Dutt had initially agreed to present the film but became so impressed by the story that he decided to act in it and suggested Bachchan for a role.

Gupta remembered Bachchan’s home being filled with photographs of the superstar, which made the filmmaker even more intimidated. During the narration, Bachchan maintained a poker face and gave no reaction, leaving Gupta convinced that the meeting had not gone well.

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“I thought some day, I’ll tell my grandchildren ke maine Amitabh Bachchan ko subject sunaya tha,” Gupta recalled.

After Gupta finished, Bachchan remained silent for around 20 seconds before the filmmaker finally asked what he thought of the story. Bachchan told him that he liked it, leaving Gupta relieved after what he described as an extremely nerve-racking experience.

About Kaante

Released on December 20, 2002, Kaante brought together Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Suniel Shetty, Lucky Ali, Mahesh Manjrekar and Kumar Gaurav for a crime thriller about six men who come together to execute a bank robbery in Los Angeles. The film eventually developed a cult following for its style, action, dialogues and music.

The film is often described as heavily inspired by Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs.