Not Aamir Khan, but the makers wanted another Khan to lead John Matthew Matthan's Sarfarosh.
Aamir Khan's Sarfarosh completed 25 years. Released in 1999, the action thriller written, produced, and directed by John Matthew Matthan became a super hit. However, recently, the filmmaker revealed that Aamir Khan was not the makers' first choice for the role.
In a recent interview with Indian Express, John Matthew Matthan recalled how he wanted to cast Aamir Khan in Sarfarosh, however, the makers wanted Shah Rukh Khan. He said, "On television there, I saw a small scene from one of Aamir’s films where his character was going to rape Madhuri Dixit’s character. And I felt that this guy looks honest, he is not going to rape this girl, and that this was just an act. But I felt he suited the role. He was not a big star back then actually. So when I came back to Mumbai and started work on Sarfarosh with Aamir in my mind."
He added, then when he approached one of his producer friend, he told him to cast Shah Rukh Khan instead and said, "I met my friend Manmohan Shetty, who owned Adlabs, and told him that I want to make a film. Around this time, Shetty started Entertainment One to produce feature films. He had funded two films of my friends, both of which starred Shah Rukh Khan. One was Vikram Mehrotra’s Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa, directed by Kundan Shah and the other was Praveen Nischol’s English Babu Desi Mem, both starring SRK. So at that time, all of them suggested I take Shah Rukh."
However, John rejected the idea of casting Shah Rukh Khan and said, ‘Listen, I don’t think Shah Rukh suits my role. I don’t have him in my mind,’ but they said that we would be able to save more money as the three of us could get a deal, but I didn’t want to."
The filmmaker also gave an update about Sarfarosh 2 and said, "Aamir is keen. I am also planning to make it, but unless you get the freedom and choice to do it and if it is not pleasurable for you then, how are others going to enjoy your film? Also, there are not many scripts that I have liked. When I made Sarfarosh, I had a yardstick that the rickshaw walas should understand and enjoy it as much as college professors, so I am yet to find something like that to make a film again. But today, the yardstick has changed. The rickshaw walas can’t afford to buy movie tickets anymore, so college professors and students should understand and enjoy the movies, so that’s something I am working towards. It is actually a very good moment to make good films — ones which are intelligent and appealing."
Meanwhile, Aamir Khan is currently awaiting the release of his upcoming film Sitaare Zameen Par and has also backed Rajkumar Santoshi's Lahore 1947 which stars Sunny Deol. The actor is finally making a comeback after a break from movies post Laal Singh Chaddha's failure.
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 "Aamir Khan was not first choice for Sarfarosh")
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