‘I’m not doing this’: Sujoy Ghosh reveals the ‘dancing condom’ scene that made Juhi Chawla reject Jhankaar Beats | Bollywood News
3 min readMumbaiFeb 12, 2026 08:06 AM IST
Sujoy Ghosh is now widely recognized as a master of thrill, a filmmaker who always has a few twists up his sleeve. He wields these twists not just as plot devices but as a crutch to expose deeper moralities. But there was a time when he was anything but a thriller-maker. Even then, Ghosh was fascinated by human relationships, though he approached them with humor. Comedy was his tool; wit was his signature. This was the period when he made his debut feature, Jhankar Beats, which arrived just two years after Dil Chahta Hai. The film was refreshingly unconventional, effortlessly blending fun with maturity. Ghosh pulled off a major casting coup, bringing together Juhi Chawla, Sanjay Suri, and Rahul Bose, while Vishal-Shekhar’s music helped put the film, and the composers, firmly on the map.
However, in an exclusive conversation with SCREEN, Ghosh revealed that Juhi Chawla initially rejected the film after hearing its premise, possibly due to the adult humor it contained. “She read the script, she was shocked. She said, ‘I’m not doing this.’” When asked about her reason for saying no, Ghosh explained that she had an issue with one particular scene.
Juhi Chawla had an issue with one of the scenes in the film.
“So there was this scene where Deep (Sanjay Suri) is not having a good day. Lots of tension at the office, and he’s unable to crack the advertisement they are working on. His mother-in-law is also staying with him, and the new baby is on the way. He has a dream that Shanti (Juhi Chawla) has delivered, and the baby has arrived. But when he picks up the baby, the baby has the face of his mother-in-law. And suddenly, he realizes there’s something very bright behind him. He turns, and he sees this giant fluorescent condom, dancing, telling him, ‘Had you used me? Aaj yeh din dekhna nahi padta.’ (You shouldn’t have to see this day). So Juhi said, ‘If this scene is there, I’m not there.’ So we removed the scene.”
Watch the new episode of Cult Comebacks on Jhankar Beats, here:
In the same conversation, Ghosh also reflected on the joy of working with Juhi, despite her initial hesitation. “Juhi was probably the saviour of the film. She was the star we needed to make the film happen. Without her, we wouldn’t have got the film. And without Shanti, her character, I would have never made the film. Because Shanti was, again, you know, my early Vidya Bagchi (referring to the character of Vidya Balan from Kahaani).”
The film was recently screened at Mumbai’s Kala Ghodha festival where Sujoy Ghosh, Sanjay Suri, and Shayan Munshi were also present. Suri said at the festival that Jhankaar Beats is unlikely to be made now as “legal teams would first read the script and flag the condom references immediately”.
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