Bobby Deol has spoken about what happened during the making of Imtiaz Ali’s Jab We Met again in an interview The actor revealed, ‘I wasn’t offered.’ He further revealed, ‘Back then when Socha Na Tha was getting made, I saw its rush print. I caught Imtiaz and said, ‘Look, your film hasn’t released yet; it’s only halfway done. I’m working with you, so write the script.’ So, he started writing the script for me. I tried really hard to make that film (Jab WeMet) happen; I reached out to a lot of.’
Deol added, ‘I approached a producer, Ashtavinayak. Actually, he came to me wanting to make a film. I suggested he take Imtiaz, but he said, ‘No, not Imtiaz. We want to go with another director.’ At that time, Imtiaz and I were really good friends, we still are, but we were super close back then.’
The Animal star continued, ‘Then he said he wanted Kareena Kapoor, so I arranged a meeting with Kareena through someone. But she also turned it down. After that, I talked to Preity Zinta and she said she wasn’t interested at that moment. She said— I can’t do it now, I’ll do it later.’
Bobby then revealed he was ‘kicked out’ of the film and Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor Khan came on board.
What Imtiaz Ali said
While speaking to Lallantop, the filmmaker narrated his side of the story and 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.”
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, 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.”