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Maine Pyar Kiya launched Salman Khan and Bhagyashreee as leading movie stars. While Salman had appeared in a small role in Biwi Ho Toh Aisi, this was his first film as a leading hero but while selecting the leading lady opposite him, director Sooraj Barjatya auditioned many actors and one of those actors was Upasana Singh. In a recent interview, Upasana revealed that she was not selected for the film because she was taller than Salman. She recalled that after her initial audition, director Sooraj Barjatya had selected her for the role but his father Raj Kumar Barjatya did not like her enough for the role of Suman.
In a chat with Siddharth Kannan, Upasana recalled that she auditioned for Bhagyashree’s role in Maine Pyar Kiya. She shared that she met Sooraj when she first came to Mumbai. “He told me everything about the film, my role. And he selected me. After that, he said that you come tomorrow and meet my father but from my end, you are okay. The next day, I met his father and he rejected me. They are very sweet people so he did not say rejected but they did not call me again,” she recalled.
Upasana said that many years later, she worked with Rajshri on Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon and that is when Raj Kumar Barjatya announced in front of the film’s cast that Upasana was their first choice for Suman. Recalling an anecdote from the set, she shared, “He said, ‘did you know who was our first choice for Maine Pyar Kiya?’ Kareena, Abhishek and Hrithik were all there. I had never told people about it because I lost out the role. Then he said ‘it was Upasana’. Everyone was shocked. I said ‘but because of you I didn’t get the role. He said ‘if I selected you, then you would have also left the movies like Bhagyashree’.”
Upasana then revealed the real reason why she wasn’t selected for the film. She shared that that they went in another direction because they wanted a woman who was considerably shorter than Salman and Upasana was tall. “He said ‘I am not making an excuse, but you were taller than Salman’. That is what I was told. They wanted someone who was a little shorter than Salman so that’s why they didn’t cast me. They were not lying,” she recalled.
Maine Pyar Kiya turned out to be a massive hit and after its release, Salman and Bhagyashree gained instant stardom.
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