Not HouseFull 5 but Sivaji's Vasantha Maligai and Mammootty- Mohanlal Harikrishnan had TWO ENDINGS

Housefull 5A and 5B: Akshay Kumar, Abhishek Bachchan, Riteish Deshmukh starrer hit the theatres on June 6. During the trailer launch, producer Sajid Nadiadwala claimed that this approach of two endings is unprecedented, but netizens quickly debunked this by referencing the 1998 Malayalam film Harikrishnan, which also offered two endings, 27 years ago. Similarly Vasantha Maligai the Sivaji Ganesan film released in September 1972 had two endings.

Many netizens are pointing out Harikrishnans as the first to try two endings but it was not so. As a Sivaji Rasikar Manram fan club member in Thiruvanthapuram, I remember waiting for the print to come. As the custom, Sivaji film opened in two theatres within a one km radius. We felt very sad to see the Thespian die in the climax – heartbroken. Soon in two days we got news that a new ending has been shot and it is coming. In the happy ending- Sivaji is hospitalized and is welcomed back by his lover and ends with the hit song -Mayakkamenna.

Now fan club members were divided and so one theatre showed the sad ending and other the happy ending. The reason was that Tamil Nadu Sivaji fans could not digest the sad ending. Later as a journalist when I met Sivaji , I told him that I was his official fan club member, He asked me which film  I liked most- without waiting to think I told him Vasantha Maligai. He shot back – Kudikara payal- Drunkard boy. I seen it atleast 14 times in first run and fun was alternating between sad and happy. Years later the film got released in Manadeveli Theatres – Kabali. I saw it there too.

Coming to Malayalam , the two endings for Harikrishnan was that single heroine Juhi Chawla in the climax chooses Mohanlal over Mammootty. It was said that  forNorthern Kerala, climax was changed to please Mammootty fans. I also heard that  the film was a commercial success, the two endings also led to some controversy. According to Wikipedia, only the Mohanlal version was submitted to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) for censorship approval, and the board sent a notice to the producer after both versions were released Director was Fazil and he only discovered Mohanlal and at same time close to Mammootty.

However, Mammootty gave  a different version. He said that the idea was to screen the film with two endings in two theatres in same city and have both run housefull. When the prints got coming to Kerala, the Mammootty getting girl went to theatres from Ernakulam to North Kerala and Lal climax to South and Central Kerala. Hde was trying to play down the North- South divide. IF two prints  for two  theatre were marker per city and one print was playing , then where did other print go ? It was the print box film reel era and not the Qube