Shah Rukh Khan and Akshay Kumar were not the first choices for Baazigar and Khiladi. Read on to know more.
Akshay Kumar’s 1992 film Khiladi and Shah Rukh Khan’s 1993 film Baazigar were one of the biggest films of their careers that helped them emerge as leading actors in the industry. Both rose to fame after the successful hits and these films are still considered as one of the most memorable films. However, did you know that both the actors were not the first choice for these films?
In an earlier interaction, filmmaker duo Abbas and Mustan Burmawala revealed that these films would have had the Khan brothers Arbaaz and Salman Khan in the lead roles, but their father Salim Khan had a different idea. He elaborated on what happened in the 90s. Talking about Khiladi, Mustan said, “When we wrote the story of the film, we first went to Salim to talk about it because we wanted to cast Arbaaz Khan in the lead role. He heard the story with Arbaaz, but he felt the role would not be suitable for him. So, we asked Akshay for the role.”
He revealed that they had approached two actors before casting Shah Rukh in Baazigar, “We approached Anil Kapoor but he said the subject was risky and I won’t do it. So, we approached Salman, but he was doing Rajshri films at that time, which were all family films. Salim sahab said it was too early for Salman to do such films. We finally approached Shah Rukh, and both of us narrated the story.”
Mustaan further added, “Shah Rukh was sitting on the floor while listening to the story and we were sitting on the sofa. After the story was over, he got up, hugged us and said, ‘What a story, I will do it.'”
In an interview with Screen, Arbaaz revealed that he did not choose Khiladi as his first film. He said, “I was approached by the same directors for another film. I could not do it (the film) because I had signed a contract with another director. That film was Khiladi. I was offered Akshay Kumar’s role. But unfortunately that second film also did not happen.”
