Delhi-6 won the Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration at the 57th National Film Awards in 2010. However, it was also a film for which Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra received death threats. Reflecting on the moment he learnt about the award, he wrote in his book, “Suddenly, the dark humour came back full circle: how could I receive death threats for making a film about national integration?” As the film completes 15 years, let’s take a closer look at it.

During the research of the film, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra and scriptwriter Kamlesh Pandey were walking in the lanes of Old Delhi and encountered a street fight.

Pandey, who stayed as a guest at Mehra’s Old Delhi house for a month, told us, “While roaming in the bylanes of Old Delhi, we spotted a 14 or 15-year-old boy getting cornered by other boys. They were about to hit him, when he said, ‘Haath na lagaiyo, Delhi-6 ka launda hoon main’. I loved that attitude! That’s when we changed the film’s title from Monkey Man to Delhi-6. Delhi-6 isn’t just a pin code of the Walled City; it is an identity.”

Most of the characters in the film are based on real people. Pandey said, “Do bhai jinhone deewaar toh khadi kar li beech mein, lekin taana sunaate hain deewar ke paas se (referring to characters played by Om Puri and Pavan Raj Malhotra). Woh dono saath mein drink nahi karte thay lekin dono do glass rakhte thay. I met these two brothers in Old Delhi. We have included everything that Old Delhi residents do.”

The film didn’t perform well at the box office in India. But six months after Delhi-6 released, Mehra and his team spent three days shooting a new beginning and modifying the ending.

In the new version, they retained what was in the original script so the audience would know from the beginning that Roshan (Abhishek Bachchan’s character) would die. The new version went to the Venice International Film Festival, where it got a late night slot in the main theatre.

- Two climaxes were shot for the film: one in which Abhishek’s character Roshan dies as mob lynches him and another in which he survives.

- The pigeon, Masakali, wasn’t in the script initially. “(A R) Rahman kept humming Masakali, and made me hear the track in the middle of the night. After which, I added the pigeon Masakali to the script,” says Mehra

- The film premiered at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York

- Samir Chanda received the National Award for best production design for his re-creation of Old Delhi

- Scriptwriter Kamlesh Pandey met many girls in Old Delhi who would leave home in salwar-kameez and change clothes after leaving the area, Sonam’s character, Bittu, took inspiration from that

—With excerpts from A Stranger In The Mirror

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