Anil Sharma reveals he had thought of Aishwarya, Kajol for Gadar; had to choose between casting known heroine or Amrish Puri: ‘An actress demanded lot of money’

In an interview with Bollywood Thikana, Anil Sharma said, “When we were doing the film, I had a lot of names of actresses on my mind. Aishwarya, Kajol. There were a lot of them. I had to narrate the script to them, and two-three of them heard and also liked it. A few of them turned it down as well. I don’t want to go into why they rejected it.

“Back in the day, people would say, ‘Oh there is no Switzerland in the film so it must be a purane typi ki film.’ In the 90s, they would says this is a 70s film and now they call a film of today 90s film.”

The director said the producers of Gadar, Zee, had told him that he had to choose between having Amrish Puri in Gadar or a known female actor, as someone had agreed to do the film but was charging a lot.

“Zee told me that they spoke to an actress who had agreed to star in it but was charging a lot of money. But the budget was tight, so they told me I had to choose between the heroine or Amrish Puri! So I chose Amrish ji and said I will cast a new heroine. Amrish ji was absolutely necessary. There would have been no film without him. He had to be this powerful Ashraf Ali. Then we decided to cast a new face,” he added.

Anil Sharma is currently basking in the glory of Gadar 2’s massive success, which has earned more than Rs 524 crore nett in India. The film also starred Sunny Deol and Ameesha Patel, reprising their roles from the first installment.