When Salman Khan Took Katrina Kaif To Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s House & Said, “This Is Your Mastani” After His Ugly Break Up With The Original Lead Aishwarya Rai
After Aishwarya Rai walked out of Bajirao Mastani, Salman Khan persuaded Sanjay Leela Bhansali to make the movie with this actress.
Salman Khan Once Took Katrina Kaif To Sanjay Leela Bhansali & Asked Him To Cast Her Instead Of Aishwarya Rai ( Photo Credit – Instagram ; Movie Poster )
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Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Bajirao Mastani was a film which was one of the most talked about projects of the star director. The main reason being the original starcast of the film which was Salman Khan and Aishwarya Rai. The film was planned while Salman Khan and Bhansali were shooting together for Khamoshi: The Musical.
Post Khamoshi, the duo started working on Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, and Bhansali eyed his lead pair for his ambitious project Bajirao Mastani. Salman and Aish were killing it as a couple on-screen and then off-screen. However, it was a short-lived dream for Bhansali to cast them again as the couple headed for an ugly separation.
But Salman Khan was relentless and desperate to work on Bajirao Mastani. Aishwarya Rai walked out of it for obvious reasons. However, Bhansali did not want to go ahead with the film until the Judwaa actor landed at his place with a girl one day. Scroll down to read what happened next.
Subhash K Jha wrote about this interesting anecdote on Bajirao Mastani’s casting in one of his columns. He narrated, “After the Aishwarya-Salman pair became unachievable, Salman wanted Bhansali to cast Katrina Kaif as Mastani. In fact, Salman personally took Katrina to SLB’s home and introduced her to the director saying, ‘This is your Mastani.’ But, some things are not meant to be. We may be able to imagine Katrina on a horse, but can we imagine her speaking those chaste Hindi-Urdu lines?”
Bhansali was in no mood to cast Katrina Kaif as Mastani. He later again tried to revive the project, as reported in the same column. ”In 2003, Bhansali decided to make Bajirao Mastani with Salman and Kareena Kapoor. Salman recommended Bhumika Chawla as Bajirao’s first wife. Sanjay Leela Bhansali did a screen test of Bhumika where, lamentably, her saree caught fire with the diya. No damage was done, but that ended Chawla’s audition. Bhansali revived the project 12 years later. His choice this time for Bajirao was Ajay Devgn, because of the Maharashtrian backdrop. But Devgn asked for a fee that, according to insiders, was staggering”, wrote Jha.
Do you think Salman Khan & Katrina Kaif would have made a better pair as Bajirao – Mastani than Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone? Let us know in the comments section below.
