Before Kunal Kohli signed Saif Ali Khan for Hum Tum, he had approached Aamir Khan and Hrithik Roshan, who refused the film. Saif went on to win the National Award for Best Actor for his performance.
Directed by Kunal Kohli, the 2004 film Hum Tum recently completed its twenty years of release on May 28. The romantic comedy starred Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukerji in the leading roles, and was produced by Aditya Chopra under his banner Yash Raj Films. The film went on to become the benchmark for the urbane, cool romantic comedies that followed later in the 2000s.
Before Saif Ali Khan came on board, Kunal Kohli had approached Aamir Khan and Hrithik Roshan to play the lead role in the film, but both of them refused. In a recent interview, the filmmaker opened up on why the two superstars refused his film and how the Omkara actor came on board.
Talking to indianexpress.com, Kunal said, "Hrithik loved the script. He said, ‘I am not confident of the films I am doing right now, I don’t know how many of them will work or what will happen to them, and I don’t know whether I am in the right frame of mind to do this.’ He said to wait for a couple of his films to release and then let’s take a call. But Adi (Aditya) felt it would be too long to wait for two years, see how his films fare and then decide, so he suggested we let this go. Because even Hrithik wasn’t sure if he will do it, he was very honest that he is not sure if he is right for this space."
"I don’t remember if we approached him before or after Hrithik. But Aamir was going through his divorce with Reena and told us, ‘I am not even in that frame of mind right now. It is a rom-com, I am not sure, I will give it a miss.’ He wasn’t in that space. So we were like ok no problem. I thought I will make something else. I remember there was a subject of a prisoner of war escaping from a camp. I told Adi let’s work on this because who do we cast for Hum Tum, there was no one. Then suddenly he said let’s take Saif, every scene of yours is perfect with him. Within 30 seconds I said he’s perfect", the director added.
Saif Ali Khan in Hum Tum
Saif Ali Khan won his sole National Film Award for Best Actor for his brilliant performance as Karan Kapoor in the film. At the 50th Filmfare Awards in 2005, Kunal Kohli won Best Director, Rani Mukerji won Best Actress, Alka Yagnik won Best Female Playback Singer for the title track Hum Tum, Saif won Best Performance in a Comic Role, and the movie was also honoured with the Best Scene award.
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 "Saif Ali Khan in Hum Tum/YouTube screengrab")
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