Imtiaz Ali’s Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor Khan-starrer romantic comedy-drama Jab We Met was a huge hit and is still loved by the audience. However, do you know that Shahid was not the first choice to play Aditya in the movie?
Yes, Imitiaz Ali first offered the role of Aditya to another famous actor who was also his good friend. The actor, however, kept delaying the film, and of the film then went to Shahid. The actor is none other than Bobby Deol who is currently garnering praise for his performance in Animal.
Imtiaz Ali talked about Bobby Deol being the first choice in an interview with Lallantop and revealed what went wrong. He said, “I was planning to make Jab We Met with Bobby Deol. When I was making this film, Bobby and I were very good friends. His family… they are very nice people. But Socha Na Tha took five years to make and release. Meanwhile, I was trying to start a new film so Bobby was going to do Jab We Met. Then Socha Na Tha got over but I still didn’t make the film for two years because I wanted Bobby to start it (Jab We Met).”
He added, “But he was getting other offers from big directors, so he was waiting for that to happen. He kept postponing my film, but then a time came when I didn’t find it correct because a lot of time went by. Because I did Socha Na Tha for five years and I didn’t do a film for two years after that, it was putting financial strain on me. Then I told Bobby, ‘Let’s not make this film. Let’s shake our hands and decide we will not do this film together because then our thing will be affected.”
Before this, in an interview with HuffPost in 2017, Bobby had said, "I read that Ashtavinayak has signed Imtiaz for Jab We Met and Kareena is doing the film! And she had gotten her then-boyfriend, Shahid Kapoor to act opposite her. I was like, wow. Quite an industry. We were also to do Highway together but he again did his own thing. But I have no hard feelings against him. He is a great director and doing so well. We're still friends. But I always tell him: 'Imtiaz, I won't watch any of your films until you make one with me. That'll be your best film."
Jab We Met was made in Rs 15 crore and collected Rs 48.87 crore worldwide. The film stars Shahid Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor, Saumya Tandon, Dara Singh, and Pavan Malhotra in key roles. Meanwhile, Bobby Deol is currently enjoying the success of his latest release Animal. The film also stars Rashmika Mandanna, Ranbir Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Suresh Oberoi, and Tripti Dimri in key roles and has already collected Rs 200 crore at the box office in India in just 3 days