Sanjay Leela Bhansali Had A Tough Casting Choice For Black ( Photo Credit – IMDb )
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Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Kareena Kapoor Khan’s fates have crossed together like a mystery. They have always come too close to do a film together, and things have always fallen apart. Right from Bhansali approaching Bebo for Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam to Devdas and then Black. She was also approached for Ram Leela, but we’ll take a long pause at Black since a lot happened during the casting.
Bhansali has always been in awe of Kareena and repeatedly tried casting her till they came on common grounds for Black, and everything was sorted as per both of their temperaments. But what could have been a career-defining role for Kareena vanished in a jiffy from her periphery!
Reports suggest that when Amitabh Bachchan was offered the film, and he came to know that Kareena Kapoor Khan would play the lead role of Michelle, he put his foot down. Bachchan was in a mood to boycott the Kapoors, and he took no time to decide that he was not doing a film with Kareena Kapoor Khan.
What happened next was nothing of a surprise. Bhansali had written Debraj Saha for Amitabh Bachchan, and nothing in the world could make him go against this casting. He immediately dropped Kareena Kapoor Khan from the film. And what was the reason for Amitabh Bachchan’s stern demand? It was another demand.
A demand that was rumored to be made by Babita after Abhishek Bachchan was engaged to Karisma Kapoor. The said demand put forth by Karisma and Kareena’s mother miffed Bachchans, and they refused to fulfill any demand post, which the much-hyped engagement was called off. As a result, Amitabh Bachchan decided not to work with Kapoors ever again.
However, over the years, things changed between the two families since Amitabh Bachchan’s daughter, Shweta Bachchan Nanda, was already married to Karisma Kapoor’s bua Ritu Nanda’s son, Nikhil Nanda.
Many years later, Amitabh Bachchan and Kareena Kapoor Khan worked together in Satyagraha. When we did a little research, then we found a thread on the internet that discussed these dynamics on Reddit. In fact, Redditors were shocked by Amitabh Bachchan’s stern stand as well! A user reacted, “Bebo complained in KWK too back then that she had to face the brunt of her sister’s break up as she couldn’t work with Abhishek anymore. Bachchans hold a grudge. Now AB’s son is a has-been, and Bebo ended up becoming a successful actress and is still thriving.” Another comment read, “They must have dropped the grudge somewhere as their daughter married into Raj Kapoor’s family tree.”
A user pointed out, “Even Rani was supposed to be with AB Jr., right??? Weird!” However, Rani and Abhishek’s supposed relationship must not have overlapped this timeline.
