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Who can forget Ajay Devgn’s iconic entry in his debut film Phool Aur Kaante? From the first film itself, he was a star and later went on to become a bigger superstar. But, did you know, Devgn was not the initial choice for the lead? Instead, the director, Kuku Kohli had chosen Akshay Kumar for the role. Scroll down to know how the film went to the Singham star and why Kumar backed out from the project at the last minute.
The 1991 Bollywood film also stars Madhoo, Aruna Irani, Jagdeep and Amrish Puri among others. For the movie, Ajay even won the Filmfare award for Best Male Debut. Reportedly, the film which was remade in Telugu as Varasudu was loosely based on a Malayalam film Parampara featuring Mammootty.
A few years back, Kuku Kohli spoke about landing his first directorial debut Phool Aur Kaante and how the film went to Ajay Devgn after Akshay Kumar backed out. He told Mumbai Mirror, “Since Pramod da (Pramod Chakravorty) was an established maker while I was a debutant, Akshay understandably gave priority to his film over mine. I was all charged up and my budget was tight, so I wanted bulk dates. But he could only accommodate me for 2-3 days between Deedar’s shoot. Since that did not work for me, I started looking around for another new boy.”
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Kuku Kohli who was close to Veeru Devgn went on to recall when a photograph of Ajay Devgn caught his attention and asked Veeru Ji that he wanted to audition the Singham star for Phool Aur Kaante.
The filmmaker said that he was totally impressed with Ajay and the way he performs and delivers dialogues, he added, “I saw an emotional depth in his eyes that I wanted to bring to the screen and immediately signed him on.”
Kuku Kohli applauds Ajay Devgn as he pulled off his entry scene on two bikes with ease and interestingly the stunt was performed without duplicate, safety cables or VFX. The director said, “I knew then itself that he was destined for glory.”
Earlier during the trailer launch of Sooryavanshi, Akshay Kumar revealed he was approached for Phool aur Kaante but was later replaced by Ajay Devgn. The Khiladi actor told, “Hum dono ne apna career saath mein hi shuru kiya tha. Aisa shuru kiya tha ki ek hi film ke liye dono lade the. Pehli film jo humari thi, Phool Aur Kaante, jisme pehle main tha phir mujhe dhakka maar ke isne liya.”
Stay tuned to Koimoi for more throwback stories.
