Pankaj Tripathi, Ali Fazal and Divyenndu’s film adaptation of the hit web series Mirzapur has taken over the box office since its release on September 4. Actor-MP Ravi Kishan also joined the cast of Mirzapur: The Movie as the dangerous gangster – Babban Babua Yadav. His character is receiving a lot of love and praise from the audience. In a recent interview, the film’s director Gurmmeet Singh and the show’s original creator and lead writer Puneet Krishna, spoke about Babban’s unusual gangster persona and the improvisations Kishan brought to the character during the shoot.

During a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter India, the duo was asked about how Babban was not a generic gangster, and was truly in love with his girlfriend Mumtaz (Sonal Chauhan).

Krishna said, “Many young girls have said that Babban is a very ‘green flag gangster’ (laughs). He’s so devoted that he even sews clothes for his Mumtaz. Forget being a gangster, how many men would do that?”

Babban Babua – The green-flag ganster

The makers were concerned that the climax, in which Babban loses his girlfriend, might make audiences sympathise with him too much.

“We actually started getting scared that people will feel for him so much in that climax scene that they may stop rooting for Guddu, Bablu and Munna,” Krishna said.

To which, Singh added, “We even had to ‘water down’ her death. It was very emotional and was almost working against the film. We had to really amp up the Chandu Puncture (Satendra Soni) death and make that feel cruel to balance it out, because people fell in love with Ravi Kishan’s character.”

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The director admitted that keeping the climax engaging was a challenge, especially because the main characters could not be killed off.

“The brutal thing was we knew a lot of the audience would know the story, and we had nobody to kill off in terms of our guys (Guddu, Bablu and Munna). So, just keeping that fight engaging was the biggest challenge that I faced. Also, whether that ‘Guddu getting-up’ moment would work, but it did, and the audience went mad,” he said.

Ravi Kishan’s improvisations

Ravi Kishan, who is currently winning hearts on the internet, particularly because of his expressions, style, and screen presence, improvised a few scenes in Mirzapur: The Movie.

When the interviewer asked about the moment when his character Babban shouts ‘Love you Mumtaz’ after stabbing the man in his introduction scene, Krishna laughed and revealed, “Yeah, that ‘Love you Mumtaz’ is not in the script. People are flipping out on it.”

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The sequence where Babban massages JP Yadav’s (Pramod Pathak) ears was also the actor-politician’s own idea.

“The massage is what I came up with, but him going for the ears is all him,” Singh shared.

About Mirzapur: The Movie

Mirzapur: The Movie hit theatres on September 4 and has already grossed Rs 154.05 crore worldwide. Helmed by Gurmmeet Singh, the film stars Pankaj Tripathi, Ali Fazal, Divyenndu, Jitendra Kumar, Ravi Kishan and Rasika Dugal in key roles.