Farah Khan recalls casting challenges for Shah Rukh Khan starrer Main Hoon Na: 'Hrithik Roshan rejected, Imtiaz Ali took Ayesha Takia for Socha Na Tha'

Shah Rukh Khan starrer Main Hoon Na, which marked the directorial debut of choreographer Farah Khan, turned out to be a massive blockbuster at the box office. However, the film had an interesting journey as it witnessed several struggles in its casting process.

While Hrithik Roshan was the first choice for Zayed Khan’s role, Amrita Rao replaced Ayesha Takia in Main Hoon Na. “I always face casting challenge in my films except for Shah Rukh Khan. He always agrees to do my films. During Main Hoon Na, we didn’t have casting directors and me and my assistants used to cast people. Except for Shah Rukh and Sushmita Sen, whom I had told long ago that I will cast her in my film, we had no confirmed actors. Zayed Khan came on board at the last minute. The first choice for Zayed’s role was Hrithik Roshan. This was before Hrithik’s debut film Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai had released. After the film released, Hrithik became Hrithik and he left,” said Farah Khan while talking to casting director Mukesh Chhabra on Mashable India’s show The Bombay Dream.

“I also approached Abhishek Bachchan for Zayed’s role but that didn’t work out. Then I approached Sohail Khan and that too didn’t work out. Just one or two months before the shooting of Main Hoon Na, I went to see Zayed’s film in theatre. He had a good smile and I thought he was charming. Amrita Rao came on board just 15 days before the film’s shooting. I initially wanted to cast Ayesha Takia for Amrita’s role, but then Imtiaz Ali took her for Socha Na Tha. She told me that she is going for five days, but she didn’t come back for five weeks. Then I started looking for another female lead,” she added.

Farah Khan also revealed that she approached Naseeruddin Shah, Kamal Haasan, and Nana Patekar for the negative role, which was finally played by Suniel Shetty.