Arbaaz Khan said no to Baazigar, Salman Khan didn’t want to do Khiladi for this reason: How Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar got their first hits

Shah Rukh Khan and Akshay Kumar weren't the first choices for Baazigar and Khilaadi. Read to know more.

New Delhi | Updated: November 8, 2024 04:05 PM IST

3 min read

Nikkhil Advani has made films like Kal Ho Naa Ho and Salmaan-E-Ishq with Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan respectively.

Akshay Kumar’s 1992 film Khiladi and Shah Rukh Khan‘s 1993 movie Baazigar were among the biggest films of their careers that boosted their emergence as leading actors in the industry. Both of them rose to fame after the successful hits, and these films are still considered among the most memorable ones. However, did you know that both actors weren’t the first choices for these films?

In an earlier conversation, filmmaker duo Abbas and Mustan Burmawalla revealed that the films would have starred the Khan brothers Arbaaz and Salman, respectively, but their father Salim Khan thought otherwise. They opened up about the same at length as to what went down in the 90s. Talking about Khiladi, Mustan shared, “When we wrote the film’s story, we firstly went to Salim to talk about it because we wanted to cast Arbaaz Khan in the lead role. He listened to the story with Arbaaz, but felt that the role wouldn’t suit him. Hence, we asked Akshay for the role.”

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Revealing that they approached two actors before casting Shah Rukh in Baazigar, he said, “We contacted Anil Kapoor but he said that this subject is risky and I will not do it. So, we contacted Salman, but he was doing Rajshri films back then, all family oriented. Salim sahab said that its to early for Salman to do these types of films. We lastly went to SRK, and we both gave the narration.”

Mustan further added, “Shah Rukh was sitting on the ground while listening the story and we were on the couch. After we finished, he got up, hugged us and said, ‘Kya kahaani hai, mai karta hoon (What an amazing story, I will do it)’.”

In an interview with SCREEN earlier, Arbaaz revealed that he decided not to go with Khiladi as his debut film. He said, “I was approached by the same directors for another film. I couldn’t do it (the film) because I was signed up with another director. The film was Khiladi. I was offered Akshay Kumar’s role. But unfortunately, that other film also didn’t happen.”

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