Sep 28, 2026 3:30pm IST
25 Years of ‘Ajnabee’: ‘We Told Akshay Kumar He Would Sweep All the Awards,’ Recalls Mustan
Abbas–Mustan (Abbas Alibhai Burmawalla and Mustan Alibhai Burmawalla) are one of Hindi cinema’s best-known filmmaker duos, celebrated for their stylish thrillers, suspense-driven narratives and unexpected twists. Their filmography includes “Khiladi,” “Baazigar,” “Soldier,” “Aitraaz,” “Humraaz” and “Race,” among others. Their film “Ajnabee,” starring Akshay Kumar, Bobby Deol, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Bipasha Basu, which revolved around couple-swapping and a murder, recently turned 25. Mustan Alibhai Burmawalla, who co-directed the film with his brother Abbas, looks back on the making of the thriller, its bold premise and the challenges of bringing the story to the screen.
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‘Ajnabee’ was a bold subject for its time, revolving around couple-swapping. How did it materialize?
We were working on another script with Neeraj Vora, so one day after lunch he said, “I have one idea which many producers and actors have rejected, so if you want, I can narrate it to you all.” We heard just half a minute that it’s about two couples and one of them proposes wife-swapping. We just heard that much and said, “Let’s start working on it.”
We worked very hard on this film and told Akshay that you have done so many films, but you have not won any awards. In “Ajnabee,” you will sweep all the awards for a negative role, and that actually happened.
Like many of your films, ‘Ajnabee’ was inspired by a Hollywood film, “Consenting Adults.”
We don’t watch films unless someone suggests them. And we don’t read books or novels, so if any writer suggests a bold film and we like it, we will definitely make it. Yes, we felt it was a bold script, but we like taking on challenges. Tell us about any other film with two heroes where shooting went smoothly. As for being inspired by a Hollywood film, right from the scripting stage, the entire film was Indianised except the thought.
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If you had a chance to remake the film, what would you change?
We will never remake any of our films because, whatever we thought at the time, we still think we did it right.
Why haven’t audiences seen an Abbas-Mustan film in so long?
A couple of films are near completion, but we will talk about them once their release dates are fixed.
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