New Delhi: Karan Johar's directorial debut venture 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai' starring Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol and Rani Mukerji in the lead roles, established itself as the classic romance drama. However, the director had a really tough time finalising the film's casting as almost around eight leading actresses of that time, turned down the role that was ultimately essayed by Rani with much aplomb.
Bollywood actress Raveena Tandon, who was recently honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, admitted that she had also been approached by Karan for the role. The actress also cited her reason for turning down the offer in a film that plummeted Rani's acting career.
During an interview with news agency ANI, Raveena opened up about transitioning into more serious roles after doing a dozen films that had thinly written characters for her, in the intital phase of her career. When she first began working on projects, she jokingly remarked that all she needed to do was switch up her wardrobe because the lines, the situations, and the co-stars were frequently the same. In her "second coming," she claimed she intended to "position" herself in a particular way.
She said, "Karan still doesn’t forgive me for not doing Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. But he didn’t understand at that time, Kajol was my contemporary. We started together, we were both doing lead roles. So, I couldn’t have done a Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, where I was at a lower… where I probably had a smaller role like Rani. And Rani benefitted from it because she was a newcomer. That was the difference that would’ve happened at that time, and that’s what I told Karan."
At an event earlier, Karan had said that he was turned down by as many as eight leading actresses.
Karan had said at the Talent Next launch, "I had asked everyone. Main bhikari ban chuka tha uss film mai. Eight heroines had already rejected me for the Rani Mukerjee’s role. Mujhe laga, agar koi na mile toh mujhe khud short-skirt pehen ke woh role karna padega (I thought if I don’t get anyone, I might have to wear short skirt and play the role). Eventually eight heroines said no to me and nobody besides Aishwarya Rai even called me back after hearing the narration."