Niranjan Iyengar Reveals Why Every Line Starts Sounding Like Shah Rukh Khan in Bollywood
In a gripping new episode of InControversial hosted by Pooja Chaudhri, writer-lyricist-filmmaker Niranjan Iyengar lifts the veil on Bollywood’s creative engine, from shaping iconic characters to dealing with online outrage. He explains how great films are never the victory of one genius but the result of a chorus of voices moving in sync on and off the set.
Iyengar, whose pen has powered some of Hindi cinema’s most loved dialogues and songs, calls filmmaking a deeply collaborative art where every department must “sing in unison” for the magic to land. He also breaks the myth of writing for superstars, saying that the work always begins with the character, even though lines written for a part played by Shah Rukh Khan somehow end up echoing the star’s unmistakable persona.
Sharing process details that fans rarely hear, he reveals that dialogues are often locked just before cameras roll so that scenes stay sharp, alive, and tailored to the final cast. Speaking about his long creative journey with Karan Johar, Iyengar describes their bond as so intertwined that it is hard to tell where one artistic path ends and the other begins.
The conversation also turns emotional as he recalls films he loved that did not find box office success, singling out Paap as a project that left him genuinely heartbroken when audiences failed to embrace it. In a striking confession, he admits he would rewrite the climax of Sholay so that Amitabh Bachchan’s character survives, a childhood discomfort that has stayed with him for decades.
Offering a rare comparison between key collaborators, Iyengar calls Manish a relentless perfectionist obsessed with getting every beat right, while saying Karan Johar constantly protects the bigger picture and overall narrative flow. He further addresses the backlash around the talk show Too Much with Kajol and Twinkle Khanna, describing negative reactions as a sign of the times where viewers have more platforms, more opinions, and voices that matter as long as they keep watching.
