Shah Rukh Khan's surprising 'Dilwale' role rejection revealed

Karan Razdan goes down memory lane and candidly shares his experience with Shah Rukh Khan while shooting for Dilwale.

The 63-year-old filmmaker, who also wrote the script for the 1994 film, revealed that the Kuch Kuch Hota Hai actor was initially offered the role of Arun Saxena in the project.

During an exclusive conversation with Siddharth Kannan, the Girlfriend director mentioned that the Bollywood megastar turned down the opportunity, and the role was ultimately played by Ajay Devgn.

Speaking exclusively to the outlet, he recalled, “The role that I gave to Ajay Devgn in Dilwale was originally written for Shah Rukh Khan. I had gone to his house to narrate the story, and he liked the script. He just told me one thing: ‘Karan, at the end, the heroine should go with the other guy.’ I refused to change my film’s ending. He said, ‘Then I won’t do it if I can’t sacrifice.’”

Reflecting on Subhash Ghai’s remarks, Razdan shared that the veteran filmmaker was initially skeptical about the action/romance film.

In addition, he said that Ghai felt the Singham actor wasn’t suited to play a mentally unstable character.

Dilwale, starring Ajay, Shah Rukh, Raveena Tandon, and Suniel Shetty, was directed by Harry Baweja.

For the unversed, the film turned out to be a top-grossing titles of 1994.