Imtiaz Ali's Shocker! Director Says He Wanted To Make 'Jab We Met' With Bobby Deol, ‘Highway’ With Sunny Deol
Did you know that Shahid Kapoor and Randeep Hooda were not Imtiaz Ali’s first choices for his films ‘Jab We Met’ and ‘Highway’?
Imtiaz Ali has a celebrated filmography, and 'Highway' and 'Jab We Met' are possibly two of his most popular movies till date. While 'Jab We Met' was a rom-com featuring Kareena Kapoor Khan and Shahid Kapoor in the lead roles, 'Highway' was a road-drama film featuring Alia Bhatt and Randeep Hooda. We, as fans, cannot definitely imagine other actors pulling off roles in these movies, but director Imtiaz Ali has now revealed that he had different plans for both the films.
Imtiaz Ali revealed that he had initially thought of casting Sunny Deol in 'Highway', while Bobby Deol came to his mind when he thought of casting for 'Jab We Met'.
“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)," Imtiaz Ali said, while speaking to Lallantop.
“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, so 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,” he added.
Talking about 'Highway', Imtiaz Ali said, "I was trying to make Highway with Sunny Deol. It was a very different film. It had revenge drama, which is the kind of films Sunny Deol does. That film would have also done well. I also tried to make Highway with Subhash Ghai. He told me that the film’s script resembles his 1983 film Hero. I have seen Hero 25 times so maybe that story is inside me."
Earlier, while speaking to HuffPost in 2017, even Bobby Deol had said that he was supposed to do 'Jab We Met' until he got to know that Kareena Kapoor got him replaced with Shahid Kapoor. For the unversed, Kareena and Shahid were dating when the shooting for 'Jab We Met' started.
Talking about Imtiaz Ali, he is currently awaiting the release of his next film 'Chamkila'.
The movie will revolve around the life and legacy of the renowned singer Amar Singh Chamkila. The movie stars Diljit Dosanjh and Parineeti Chopra in the lead roles, and it will be premiering on Netflix in 2024.
