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Salman Khan has been winning hearts as Avinash Singh Rathore, an Indian Spy who goes by the code alias Tiger. The film was written by Kabir Khan & Neelesh Misra. Tiger crosses paths with Zoya Humaimi, an ISI agent. While they fell in love, weaving a world that now has translated into the much-acclaimed Spy Universe, their story brilliantly struck a chord with the audience.
The film had traces that seemed inspired by a real spy. This story is about that spy and how he was an opportunity for Salman Khan to step into the first biopic film of his career in 35 years and bring a brilliant story to the theaters as well. This spy was Ravindra Kaushik. Now, you might wonder who was this guy!
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So, Kaushik, co-incidentally, went by the alias Tiger and was referred to as Black Tiger. He worked as a Spy in the Indira Gandhi Government and pulled off way too many successful missions – much more real and much more brilliant than the Tigerverse.
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This was a lifetime opportunity when ‘No One Killed Jessica’ fame director Raj Kumar Gupta approached Salman Khan to play Ravindra Kaushik on screen. The Sultan actor was excited to play Black Tiger as well. While work started on the same, the superstar experienced a string of flops, which made him rethink his decision.
He was already gearing up to start shooting for Tiger 3 by then, and he re-evaluated the pros and cons of playing the OG spy, who loosely (not officially, though) inspired the Spy world, helmed by Kabir Khan in Ek Tha Tiger. And while this was never categorically addressed, the name Tiger hints a lot about the inspiration as it feels too good to be a mere coincidence.
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While Salman Khan hesitatingly backed out of the Ravindra Kaushik biopic, Raj Kumar Gupta’s period of reserved rights also got exhausted. Later, murmurs of Anurag Basu buying the rights and contemplating approaching the Tiger actor to play Black Tiger again rose and died.
Since the biopic officially could never get enough creative minds to put it together and transform it into a brilliant cinematic experience, it was further exploited in loose inspirations here and there, messing up the charm and making it pale and overused.
Arjun Kapoor’s India’s Most Wanted, and Sidharth Malhotra’s Mission Majnu characters were chalked up to the blueprint of Ravindra Kaushik. So was ‘Tiger’ Avinash Rathore. A RAW Agent who intruded into the Pakistan Army and kept working for India, Gandhi brought crucial details about the enemies till the day he was busted and tortured in Pakistan Jail. However, he provided a lot of clues and hints about Pakistan already, which were more than enough for the Indian Army to survive battles.
Ravindra Kaushik lived as a Muslim Nabi Ahmed Shakir and joined the Pakistan Army after graduating from Karachi University. He even served as a major in the Pakistan Army, according to various reports, and married a Pakistani girl. This part of his life inspired incidents in Sidharth Malhotra’s Mission Majnu. The torture Ravindra Kaushik experienced was documented in secret letters he wrote to his family from Pakistan Jail, and Sunny Deol‘s Gadar 2 took loose inspiration from this part of his life. His story even became a loose inspiration for Romeo Akbar Walter, which initially starred Sushant Singh Rajput and later was replaced by John Abraham.
However, it would have been an interesting and refreshing take on Salman Khan‘s career if he had mustered the courage to play the OG spy, waiving off the comparisons with the Tiger franchise that would have followed. Black Tiger would definitely have been a much better and bigger opportunity to translate into reality than Tiger 3, with a jaw-dropping storyline that did not exist in the Maneesh Sharma directorial.
But as they say, not all dreams come true, and not all superstars grab the opportunity to play real-life heroes!
For more such lost films and the stories behind them, stay tuned to Koimoi.
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