The cut throat competition and media attention for every single minute details, has surely made today’s generation of actors exclaiming and claiming (most of the times falsely) to have been the first choice for the role, whenever a film becomes a hit. However, losing a part or lese being replaced by another actor is part and parcel of the showbiz industry. Whether, it was the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s or the millennium, many actors have either been unlucky to lose a project or else weren’t confident enough to accept the film in the first place. However, each time a film is declared a hit or else flop, the skeleton from the cupboard tumbles down to tell an astonishing story of how destiny has the last laugh to rule the fate of the box-office!
Raj Kapoor for whom music director Ram Ganguly composed the hit song ‘Zinda hoon iss tarah ke ghame…’ (sung by Mukesh) was sad when the showman scrapped his hard work for BARSAAT (1948). Ram Ganguly’s loss was indeed precious because a new talented duo, who was assisting him earlier, got the biggest break given by Raj Kapoor. The duo was none other than legendary Shanker-Jaikishen, who made memorable debut with BARSAAT. Rest as they is history. Guru Dutt wanted Madhubala to play the role of Meena in his 1957 hit PYAASA, which ultimately Mala Sinha did. Not only music directors, actors and directors but also scripts are lost and replaced by individual filmmakers.
The script of NAYA DAUR, written by Akhtar Mirza was considered to be ‘Poison’ by Subodh Mukherjee, Mehboob Khan (MOTHER INDIA fame) and even Raj Kapoor. It was B R Chopra, who believed and finally made the movie in 1957, much to others disliking and warning. The film was a Golden Jubilee hit in India and a big hit in various parts of the world. Few may know that Dilip Kumar rejected the movie, when BR approached him for the first time. However, it was Ashok Kumar who later convinced and insisted that Dilip Kumar should do the film. Dilip Kumar agreed but wanted Madhubala as his heroine but her father refused because their affair had become the talk of the town. Madhubala’s loss was Vyjantimala’s gain and NAYA DAUR is still one of the most memorable films of all time.
Dilip Kumar was lucky again in 1960 to walk into the shoes of Prince Salim in K Asif’s magnum opus MUGHAL-E-AZAM. He was the third choice because K Asif wanted Chandramohan, who was famous during that time to play historical characters to great popularity. He had acted earlier in Sohrab Modi’s PUKAR and Mehboob Khan’s HUAMYUN with great perfection. It was Chandramohan’s untimely demise, which made k Asif to approach Guru Dutt, who refused. This time, however, Dilip Kumar was lucky to have Madhubala to play his Anarkali and the couple went onto create an extraordinary magic on screen with the blockbuster.
Similarly, Vijay Anand was lucky to direct GUIDE in 1965, courtesy Waheeda Rehman, the leading lady of the film. It was Raj Khosla, who was entrusted to direct the film under Navketan Productions but Waheeda Rehman nixed him. Chetan Anand, who was busy with HAQEEQAT, so he asked Vijay Anand to do the honours. GUIDE became a huge hit. Similarly, when Shakti Samanta approached Aparna Sen for ARADHANA in 1969, she refused to play hero Rajesh Khanna’s unwed mother. Finally, Sharmila Tagore walked in and did a wonderful job to pair with Rajesh Khanna as his lover and mother. Rajesh Khanna played the double role of father and son in the super-hit film.
The decade of the 70s is perhaps Indian cinema’s golden period in the modern era with huge blockbusters and hit films to its credit. It is also the decade when most of the top names of today, made their impact. It was in 1971, Hrishikesh Mukherjee approached Dimple Kapadia to play GUDDI but her father Chunnibhai Kapadia turned down the offer and that is how Jaya Bhaduri, fresh from FTTI Pune made her entry in Bollywood. In the same year, Zeenat Aman made her debut as Janice (playing hippie in the film) in Dev Anand’s HARE RAMA HARE KRISHNA. Few may know that Zeenat was the third choice because first Dev wanted Zaheeda, Nargis’ niece (of PREM PUJARI fame), who got married and left the industry.
Dev Anand then approached Mumtaz, who opted to play hero’s love interest instead! In the early 70s, a lady smoking pot on screen was something Mumtaz was not ready to take risk with her career. Zeenat Aman surely was brave to take the risk and a new chapter was written in Bollywood with her arrival. However, the year 1971 surely can never be forgotten for Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s masterpiece ANAND with one of the best performances of Rajesh Khanna in the annals of Indian cinema. The super success of ANAND made everyone forgot that Hrishikesh’s first choice was Shashi Kapoor, whose brother Raj Kapoor was a great friend of the director. Destiny surely was in favour of India’s first superstar Rajesh Khanna, who rose to an ultimate height with ANAND.
In the early 70s (unlike today’s stars, who are ever ready to step into other’s shoes when a star is dropped from a project without any ethics or guilt) stars had ethics and principles to accept a project, much to the dislike of filmmakers. One good example is of Pran, who refused SHOR because he was doing the role of a Pathan in ZANJEER, much to the displeasure of Manoj Kumar. Manoj Kumar, who considered Pran as India’s Anthony Quinn (the high respect for the actor to get into any character) for his brilliant histrionics in PUKAR decided never to work again with him in near future. Premnath stepped into Pran’s shoes and gave a brilliant performance. Manoj was also dejected because his first choice was TV newsreader Smita Patil (it would have been her debut) but she refused and Jaya Bahaduri stepped in. Similarly, Sharmila Tagore was offered Nanda’s role but she refused because the role she felt didn’t have much to offer. However, Nanda’s small role was remembered for a long long time. And what a gesture it was because Nanda accepted the role on the sole condition that she would do it free! Indeed, the decade saw great ethics and camaraderie among the colleagues.
Kamal Amrohi’s PAKEEZAH (1972) would be ever remembered for Raaj Kumar’s famous dialogue ‘Aapke paon bahut haseen hain, ineh zameen par mat rakheyega’, beautiful haunting songs, Meena Kumari’s last and the most memorable film and performance and 14 years for a film to get complete. Yes, don’t be shocked to read this because Kamal Amrohi had launched the movie way back in 1958 with Ashok Kumar as the hero. He even had shot the film in 1958 in black & white (b/w) but scrapped it because ‘colour films’ had arrived by then in a big way. Such was Amrohi’s passion and perfection that he re-shot in colour but having traveled abroad and seeing the effect of ‘cinemascope’ had in Hollywood films, he once again decided to make the film in cinemascope. B then Ashok Kumar had opted out. The film got stalled in 1964 and resumed shooting in 1968 because Amrohi approached the Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM studio) and acquired the ‘cinemascope lens’ on a royalty basis. After Ashok Kumar, Kamal Amrohi approached Rajendra Kumar and Sunil Dutt, who played a spoilsport, when finally Raaj Kumar walked in. After the film was completed in 1971, Amrohi found that the lens he had acquired from MGM had a minor minute fault, to which MGM instructed its Indian chief not to collect royalty and even gifted the lens to him because the fault was not even detected by their cameramen and UK lab team! Such was the royalty of earlier filmmakers and perfection in their art. The legendary filmmaker, who will be ever remembered for creating such an amazing masterpiece are rare in today’s time.
Neetu Singh’s loss brought Dimple Kapadia’s arrival as Raj Kapoor’s BOBBY in 1973. As destined, Neetu Singh failed at the screen test and the rest is history. The star of the millennium (Big B) is today every filmmaker’s first choice. It is indeed surprising to know that Amitabh’s arrival as the angry young man of ZANJEER (1973) is courtesy Raaj Kumar and Dev Anand, who refused Prakash Mehra. That makes Bachchan the third choice for ZANJEER and there after the filmmaker gave memorable films together with him. Apart from picking up projects after stars had refused them, indeed it is shocking to know that Bachchan’s mother had requested Manoj Kumar’s mother-in-law (they were friends) to give her son a break after SAAT HINDUSTANI as no one was interested to work with him. Manoj Kumar was impressed with Bachchan’s dedication to learn the art of filmmaking because he spent his entire time (in hope for a role) on the sets of PURAB AUR PASCHIM and SHOR. Manoj finally offered him a role in his ROTI KAPADA AUR MAKAAN. The role of Zeenat Aman was first offered to Sharmila Tagore, who was not ready to do semi-negative role at the time. Sharmila requested Manoj to give her Moushumi Chatterjee’s role but he outright refused to give to whims and fancy of her.
With few hits in his kitty, it was Amitabh Bachchan’s turn now to recommend other stars to filmmakers. When Danny refused Ramesh Sippy’s SHOLAY (1975), it was Bachchan who recommended Amjad Khan’s name because they had worked together in SAAT HINDUSTANI (many may not know this fact though). DEEWAR (1975) wouldn’t have been the same if the first choice of Yash Chopra had acted in it. Yes, Rajesh Khanna was the first choice but writers Salim-Javed insisted to have Bachchan instead. Navin Nischol was to play Shashi Kapoor’s role and Vyjantimala, Nirupa Roy’s role. One wonders with such revelations but then can one challenge the power of destiny?
Three top hits of the 80s decade, namely, NIKAAH, MR INDIA and RAM LAKHAN have interesting anecdotes. B R Chopra after the success of INSAAF KA TARAZU wanted the successful trio (Raj Babbar-Deepak Parasher-Zeenat Aman) to act in NIKAAH (1982). However, the filmmaker was enamoured by Salma Agha’s screen test and felt Zeenat won’t be able to do justice. Shekhar Kapur’s MR INDIA (1987), which finally Anil Kapoor did, was first discussed with Rajesh Khanna by Salim-Javed. When things didn’t worked out, Bachchan was approached after the script was tailor-made to his personality. Much to their surprise, Bachchan refused as he felt the hero had little to do and the invisible factor was the real hero of the film. Anil Kapoor proved him wrong though by his brilliant performance in the film. Subhash Ghai’s first choice for RAM LAKHAN (1989) was Poonam Dhillon. Sad for Ghai but lucky for Madhuri Dixit because Poonam got married and decided to quit acting. Need we say more about the diva Madhuri?
Karan Johar’s KUCH KUCH HOTA HAI (1998) surely brought Rani Mukherjee into the big league. However, very few may know that Karan had written the role exclusively for Twinkle Khanna, who refused to play the second fiddle to Kajol. Like Twinkle, it was Kareena Kapoor, who walked out of Rakesh Roshan’s KAHO NAA…PYAR HAI (2000) opposite Hrithik. Bebo felt RFUGEE was a better bet for her launch as it had Bachchan junior opposite her, so she walked out at the very last moment before she was supposed to fly to New Zealand for the first schedule. Amisha Patel was signed at the very last moment. Many will be shocked to know that Rakesh Roshan had planned KN…PH with Shah Rukh Khan and Kareena in the lead. SRK had dates problem, so he couldn’t do the film. While many may think that father Roshan had shaped Hrithik’s career, it will be shocking to all to know that it was Honey Irani (Farhan Akhtar’s mother), who discovered Hrithik and advised Rakesh and was seconded by Rajesh Roshan almost immediately, much to everybody’s surprise.
It is destiny and not the secretaries, producers or else directors govern the twist and turns of fate of stars and superstars. Or else we wouldn’t have had so many stars, who made impact with their entry to rewrite history of Indian cinema. Ashutosh Gowarikar’s LAGAAN (2001) was nixed by Nandita Das and Rani Mukherjee before Gracy Singh was finalized to play Radha in the film. After the film became super-hit, Tejaswini Kolhapure, Tabu, Sameera Reddy and many more heroines claimed (in media) that they were the first choice. Ashutosh approached Aamir for SWADES after LAGAAN but he refused and that is how Shah Rukh Khan got the project. Kajol’s kid sister Tanisha was signed for Rajshris’ UFF KYA JADOO MOHABBAT HAI as her debut launch. Almost two weeks shooting was over but when a particular song was being picturised on Tanisha, she couldn’t give the required emotions for two long days to the director, for a two-hour shooting. The Rajshris got fed up and dropped her and signed Pooja Kanwal on a day’s notice.
KRRISH (2006) was supposed to be Amrita Rao’s great move as she was Roshans first favourite choice but the photo-shoot with Hrithik played truant in her destiny. She looked too childish and obviously the chemistry was missing between them. So Priyanka Chopra stepped in because she was the second choice. Prashant Narayanan (Siddarth’s role) and Arjun Rampal (Madhvan’s role) were signed first by Rakeysh Mehra for RANG DE BASANTI (2006).
The interesting thing about replacement is none of the stars claim they were offered the role when the film flops. However, when the film becomes a hit, suddenly the skeleton tumbles out of the cupboard. While the filmmakers uses the tactics to hype his about to release movie, the stars (especially actresses) try to belittle the actress that she was the second or third choice to gain media attention. Madhur Bhandarkar confesses honestly and concludes, “The double standard of the industry is a reality which everyone overlooks. Everybody is interested to worship the rising sun! When my first film TRISHAKTI bombed miserably, well-known actresses treated me very badly. I remember, I was made to sit for hours (in heroine’s house) and then told coldly that madam is busy and cannot meet. After CHANDNI BAR’s success, all those actresses claimed they were the first to be offered the film. The truth was they didn’t even give me their time to hear my script. Now the situation is different and I can play my cards well as they had played once with me (smiles).”
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