When Sujoy Ghosh Initially Considered Saif Ali Khan & Aishwarya Rai For Jaane Jaan Instead Of Kareena Kapoor Khan!
Before Kareena Kapoor Khan and Jaideep Ahlawat, Sujoy Ghosh had Saif Ali Khan and Aishwarya Rai in mind for Jaane Jaan’s lead roles. Discover what happened!
Saif Ali Khan Aishwarya Rai Jaane Jaan(Photo Credit –Instagram/Netflix)
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Before Jaideep Ahlawat and Kareena Kapoor Khan were cast in Sujoy Ghosh’s Jaane Jaan, Saif Ali Khan and Aishwarya Rai were considered to play the lead roles.
When Sujoy Ghosh’s mystery thriller film Jaane Jaan arrived directly on the OTT platform Netflix back in September 2023, it was received with widespread critical acclaim. The film featured Kareena Kapoor Khan, Jaideep Ahlawat, and Vijay Varma in the main roles.
Saif Ali Khan and Aishwarya Rai Were Sujoy Ghosh’s First Choice for the Film
Did you know that earlier, the film’s director, Sujoy Ghosh, had someone else in mind for the roles eventually played by Kareena Kapoor Khan and Jaideep Ahlawat? According to a report by The Times of India, Sujoy Ghosh wanted to cast Saif Ali Khan and Aishwarya Rai for these two key roles. But as every film has its destiny, things didn’t work out back then, and some major adjustments in the casting were made.
Was the Casting Change a Good Decision for Jaane Jaan?
The way Jaane Jaana turned out as a film, we can say that the decision to rope in Kareena Kapoor Khan as the single mother in distress and Jaideep Ahlawat as the eccentric genius was simply brilliant. Not that Saif Ali Khan and Aishwarya Rai would have delivered inferior performances. But the way the three lead actors got into the skin of their respective characters and their sparkling chemistry, the performances (especially that of Jaideep Ahlawat) garnered widespread praise from all quarters.
Jaane Jaan Plot and Source Material
As you might already be aware, Jaane Jaan was adapted from Keigo Higashino’s bestselling Japanese novel ‘The Devotion of Suspect X.’ Set in Kalimpong, the film’s basic plot revolves around how a single mother (Kareena Kapoor) and her daughter become the focal point of a crime investigation and how their reclusive yet brilliant neighbour (Jaideep Ahlawat) offers to help them get out of the mess. But on their trail is a sharp cop (Vijay Varma) who is hellbent on catching the culprit and solving the intricately planned crime.
Jaane Jaan Critical Appreciation
The movie received rave reviews from many critics and was highly appreciated by the OTT audiences for its spellbinding performances by the lead cast, atmospheric setting, and crisp direction by Sujoy Ghosh. The film holds an IMDb user rating of 7/10. Jaane Jaan became one of the most-watched non-English movies on the Netflix streaming platform during that period. A film of Jaane Jaan’s calibre should always be considered a prized acquisition by Netflix.
