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Shah Rukh Khan starrer Main Hoon Na is one of the most iconic films of Bollywood. The film also marked Farah Khan’s directorial debut in 2004. While SRK and Sushmita Sen were the movie’s lead pair, parallel leads Amrita Rao and Zayed Khan garnered immense popularity for their roles. But did you know Amrita was not Farah’s first choice for the role of Sanjana Bakshi?
Who Did Farah Khan Want To Cast In Main Hoon Na Before Amrita Rao?
During older interviews, Farah Khan revealed that Ayesha Takia was her original choice for the role of Sanjana. “For the role of Sanju, we signed Ayesha Takia. I loved her test. She had acted fabulously. She told us, ‘I am just going for a three-day shoot for Imtiaz Ali’s movie (Socha Na Tha) to Manali. I’ll be back in a week, after which we will do costume trials,” Faraj said during an appearance on Rajeev Masand’s Picture Ke Piche audio show.
“We kept waiting and waiting. Those three days got extended to one month. She didn’t come back. We were like, ‘We have to shoot in 10 days!’ This is when we got Amrita Rao. I saw her in a commercial. I wasn’t overwhelmed by her audition, but when I saw through the camera, there was something about her. She has a very fragile face. I was looking at a feistier girl. This one was very pretty. Nevertheless she proved her worth, ‘She would nail it at every take while others would f**k up,” she concluded.
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Farah Khan On The Casting Challenges Of Main Hoon Na
In a conversation with casting director Mukesh Chhabra on Mashable India’s show The Bombay Dream (via First Post), Farah Khan reminisced about casting challenges for Main Hoon Na. She shared, “I always face casting challenges for my films except for Shah Rukh Khan. He always agrees to do my films. During Main Hoon Na, we didn’t have casting directors, and me and my assistants used to cast people.”
“Except for Shah Rukh Khan and Sushmita Sen, whom I had told long ago that I will cast in my film, we had no confirmed actors. Zayed Khan came on board at the last minute. The first choice for Zayed’s role was Hrithik Roshan. This was before Hrithik’s debut film Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai had been released. After the film, Hrithik became Hrithik, and he left,” she recalled.
“I also approached Abhishek Bachchan for Zayed’s role, but that didn’t work out. Then I approached Sohail Khan, but that also didn’t work out. Just one or two months before the shooting of Main Hoon Na, I went to see Zayed’s film in a theatre. He had a good smile and thought he was charming,” Farah Khan shared.
She also reminisced about Amrita Rao’s last moment casting and said, “Amrita Rao came on board just 15 days before the film’s shooting. I initially wanted to cast Ayesha Takia for Amrita’s role, but then Imtiaz Ali took her for Socha Na Tha. She told me that she was going for five days, but she didn’t come back for five weeks. Then I started looking for another female lead.”
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Farah Khan also revealed that she approached Nana Patekar, Kamal Haasan, and Naseeruddin Shah for the negative role. However, Suniel Shetty eventually played it.
For more such stories, check out Bollywood Features
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