Satish Kaushik calls Kabir Singh ‘an adapted copy of Tere Naam’, reveals Salman Khan didn’t like playing Radhe

Director Satish Kaushik feels Tere Naam is a brand, but it cannot be remade today because of the changing taste of the audience. “We’ll definitely need to adapt with the times. Making the same film and getting the same performance out of Salman will be difficult,” the ace filmmaker told .
Tere Naam released in 2003. Starring Salman Khan and Bhumika Chawla, it revolved around a rowdy guy Radhe who madly falls in love with a demure girl Nirjara. In order to win her over, he stalks her, threatens her and even intimidates her fiancé. She ultimately falls for his passion and encourages Radhe to give up violence. But fate has its way and Radhe ends up in a mental asylum following a brutal attack and Nirjara commits suicide.

Tere Naam has time and again been led among Salman’s finest performances. But Satish Kaushik reveals that the superstar was never convinced with Radhe’s actions in the movie, of being a stalker who’s obsessed with his girl. The film has also been called out for its problematic premise, misogyny and toxic masculinity.
Salman Khan played an obsessive lover in Tere Naam. (Photo: Express Archives)
“Salman always said the film is good and will definitely work. But the character gives a wrong message in it. There was a debate on Kabir Singh too. Kabir Singh was an adapted copy of Tere Naam,” the director said.
Drawing parallels with how guys woo girls in small towns using all wrong means, even to this day, Kaushik added, “The guy is trying to tell the girl that he loves her, yet he is not ready to take no from her. That’s definitely not good. But if you notice, that’s the culture in small cities even today, where a guy ends up running after a girl.”

According to the filmmaker, even if the film doesn’t fit in the urban audience today, the situation prevails in hinterlands. But he accepts that as a filmmaker, there’s a certain responsibility if he tries to remake it. “As a filmmaker, your responsibility, whether you want to show such a love story or not, is a different issue all together. One would definitely want to avoid that (today). You can’t fall in love with someone who’s said no to you. But that’s what passion was all about then, where you won’t take no from a person.”

Satish Kaushik had few years back, stated that Tere Naam 2 will be a completely new story. He told PTI that its script was locked and that it is “a love story of a gangster.”

He also told in 2019 that he hasn’t though about the cast of its sequel. “Tere Naam is such a popular brand because of Salman that every year some news starts making the rounds.”
“I have a script for Tere Naam 2 for sure, and of the same intensity, but I have not discussed it with Salman. Nothing has been finalised or I haven’t approached anyone or even talked to anyone about it. But if it happens, it will definitely be a talked about film,” he told us earlier.