Casting the right actor for each role is almost half the job done for a film director. It is true that Dilip Kumar was approached for the role of Sherif Ali in Lawrence of Arabia but he refused, wanting to play Lawrence instead. Clint Eastwood declined Superman as he believed he was too old to don the costume and we must thank him for it because he couldn’t have done a job better than Christopher Reeve. Let’s take a look at some casting coups that really did happen and how it affected the end product.

SHOLAY (1975)

The Indians refer to Sholay as ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told’ but even this classic had issues with the initial casting process. Amjad Khan and Amitabh Bachchan weren’t the first choices for the roles of Gabbar Singh and Jaydev; the honour went to Danny Denzongpa and Shatrughan Sinha. While Danny politely declined to accept the role because he was busy shooting Feroz Khan’s Khhotte Sikkay at the same time, Shatru lost the race because of Jaya Bhaduri, who was dating Amitabh Bachchan. She asked Dharmendra to recommend Big B for the role of Jay and the rest is history. Amitabh Bachchan thanked Dharam Pa Jee in one of the award functions at the turn of the century for the recommendation, but he never thanked Shatrughan Sinha. May be by naming his character Amitabh Sinha in Shamitabh, Amit jee returned the favour…

DARR (1993)

Can you believe that Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak cutie Aamir Khan was the first choice of Yash Chopra for the role of Rahul in Darr, the same guy who loves K-K-Kiran more than anything in this world?  What makes this fact even more astounding is that the film came at a time when Aamir Khan was signing films left, right and center and had even agreed to play Rajinikanth’s brother in one of those films! After the director couldn’t rope in Aamir Khan, he went to Rishi Kapoor who politely advised him to cast his Deewana co-star instead. Nobody knew that the youngster Rishi Kapoor recommended would go on to become the Badshah of Bollywood… you guessed it, it was Shah Rukh Khan! By the way, Sridevi had also expressed her desire to play the role of the antagonist but it was respectfully turned down by the director. Thank God!

INDIANA JONES AND THE RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981)

The only reason why George Lucas didn’t want Harrison Ford to be Indiana Jones was public pressure - he was afraid that they will be known as something like ‘Bobby De Niro’ (after the perennial pair Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro). That’s why he finalized Tom Selleck - who was to achieve stardom as Thomas Magnum through Magnum P.I. on television - to be Indiana Jones. After the TV network refused to release Tom Selleck, executive producer Steven Spielberg intervened and made George Lucas go for his initial choice and that is how Dr. Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr. was born!

BACK TO THE FUTURE (1985)

Michael J. Fox wasn’t supposed to play Marty McFly in Robert Zemeckis’ time-travelling trilogy when it began filming in 1984. In fact Eric Stoltz was cast as the protagonist and even filmed some scenes, which were later included in the making of the movie. After five weeks of filming, he was replaced with Michael J. Fox who went on to reprise the character in two sequels and became an overnight sensation. Why was he replaced, you ask? The director wasn’t happy with the way things were turning out with the leading man and we are thankful to him for doing what he thought was right.

MERE HUMSAFAR (1972)

I always wondered about director Pervez Malik’s decision to cast Mohammad Ali in the spy/secret agent role in Mere Humsafar, one of the first Pakistani films to be shot in France. Ahmed Rushdi’s ‘Yeh Raahein Ajnabi Hain’ sounded more like a song composed for Waheed Murad than Mohammad Ali, since the great playback singer always sang as per the demands of the leading man. When I met Sohail Rana, the film’s music composer, the first question I asked him was this. It turns out that "Waheed (Murad) was the original choice for the leading man; it was just days before the shooting that he played a harmless prank on the producer asking for more money and was replaced by Ali bhai. We were shocked ourselves as the songs were recorded and everything was ready, but we had to go as per the producer’s wishes." Just imagine Waheed Murad dancing in front of the Eiffel Tower and wooing Shabnam on Champs-Élysées … what a sight would that have been!