‘Abhishek Bachchan dies in Delhi 6’: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra says ‘India hasn’t evolved’ to accept film’s original cut

Delhi-6 flopped at the box office.

Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Delhi 6 remains an intriguing work, as it was a piece of art that not only interrogates the cultural contours of India’s past but also hints towards the ethical and social trajectories that will influence its future. Yet, in an industry often governed by narrow commercial imperatives, such nuances often go unnoticed. When the film released in 2009, it was a box office failure. Over time, however, it has grown in stature, proving to be more incisive and relevant than many films of that decade. In an exclusive conversation with SCREEN, Mehra revealed that the country is still not ready for the film’s original version, which remains unreleased. This version, he says, opens with the death of the film’s protagonist, Abhishek Bachchan: “The original film opens with the ashes immersion of Abhishek’s character in the Ganges. And over that, a voiceover comes, in Abhishek’s voice, saying, ‘These are my ashes.’ That’s how the story begins, and in the very opening frame you are told that your hero is dead.” Mehra continued: “That’s the original version. I still have it with me. That’s the one that went to the Venice Film Festival. They saw the film, they freaked out, they said ‘wow,’ and they gave it a lovely reception out there. And that’s why I call it the Venice cut, or the director’s cut. And Variety, the film magazine, gave it a front page, calling it ‘(un)Bollywood’.”

In the version of the film that was released, Abhishek Bachchan’s character survives, and the narrative concludes with a decidedly optimistic ending.

On why he changed the ending for the Indian release, Mehra admitted: “Out of foolishness. Sheer foolishness. We filmmakers are foolish people, mad, foolish, all of that. I think there was so much dark humour in the film. There was so much going on that everybody who saw the cut said, ‘Leave it with some hope,’ and all that. And I fell for it. I shouldn’t have.”

Asked if he plans to release the original director’s cut someday, especially at a time when older classics are being re-released, Mehra remained uncertain: “I don’t know, I really don’t. If I were to re-release, I still feel the time isn’t right. I still feel the nation hasn’t evolved; in fact, we have gone down the hole in many ways. Of course, we have progressed in many ways as well, but I don’t know how to define that progress.”