Shahrukh Khan rose to fame through the film Baazigar released in 1993. However, very few people know that Shahrukh Khan was not the first choice of directors Abbas-Mustan to play the negative role of Ajay Verma in this film. Before him, this film was offered to Salman Khan. Sridevi was also going to play the lead role in the film, but due to her stubbornness, she could not be a part of the film.
The interesting story of the casting of this film was narrated by Abbas-Mustan, director of the film Baazigar, in an interview with Radio Nasha. He had said: we saw talent in Shahrukh. At that time, people told us not to take this photo. No gray character ever moves. But we decided that we would definitely make this film. Our producer said that we have made the film Khiladi. Akshay was chosen there. Now let’s take Anil Kapoor in Baazigar. Anil was a big star at that time. We went to Anil Kapoor, we also told him the story of the film.
He further said that at that time the shooting of Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja was happening in Mahalakshmi’s studio. After listening to the story, Anil said, your topic is good, but this story is not suitable for me. I can’t justify it. You succeed with someone else.
Abbas-Mustan added that after Anil, we went to see Salman Khan. His father Salim Khan also sat together and listened to the story. At that time, he was doing a family film of Rajshree Production. After listening to the story he told, your film will be successful, but I can’t make this film. At the moment I’m making a family film, people don’t accept me.
He added that when Salman also rejected the film, he thought of Shahrukh Khan. Both of them had seen some of Shahrukh’s previous films. When he reached Shahrukh, he sat on the floor to listen to the story and heard the whole story at once. As soon as he hears the story he told, I will take this photo. It will be quite difficult.
Abbas-Mustan said in the interview that Shahrukh was so excited about the film that at that very moment he started deciding what kind of acting he was going to do in which scene. Shahrukh showed him each scene in different ways during the workshop.
Sridevi had stubbornly left the film Baazigar
During the conversation, Abbas Mastan also shared a funny incident regarding the casting of the female lead. He said Kajol was the first to be cast in the film when he was just 17 years old. After that, he went to Sridevi for another actress. After listening to the story, Sridevi said that she wanted to play the role of two sisters.
Shilpa Shetty played the role of Seema in the film.
He said that Shahrukh Khan was already playing two types of characters in the film, in such a situation, if the heroine also had a double role, then the audience would feel that everything is a double-double. We thought that Sridevi should be given the role of Seema, but then we thought that if we show a superstar like Sridevi dying in the first half of the film, then the audience might reject the film. With this idea, this role was then given to Shilpa Shetty.