Karan Johar started crying when Salman Khan insisted on wearing torn jeans in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai intro song, Shah Rukh said ‘so embarrassing’

The son of veteran producer Yash Johar, Karan Johar made his entry into the film industry by helming the romance film Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, starring Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol in the lead roles. The film, which also featured Salman Khan and Rani Mukerji in supporting roles, went on to become one of Bollywood’s all-time greatest successes and remains cherished to this day.

Recently, Karan Johar reminisced about how he zeroed in on various actors and the efforts he made to get Salman Khan on board after several other actors, including Chandrachur Singh and Saif Ali Khan, declined the role of Aman Mehra.

“After Chandrachur Singh and Saif Ali Khan said no, I was very depressed. One day, I was at Chunky Panday’s house for a party and Salman came up to me and said ‘I heard you have been shopping’. He said you need to be really confident to do that part and asked me to come and narrate it to him the next day,” Karan recalled during a chat with fashion designer Prabal Gurung for Gold House NGO.

Mentioning that he considered that a good opportunity, Karan said he went to the set of Jab Pyaar Kisise Hota Hai, as instructed by Salman. “Since he said it’s a 9 am shift, I reached the set at 8.45 am. It was producer Ramesh S Taurani’s film. He looked at me and said ‘Are you crazy? He isn’t coming before 2.’ But I was like, I will do what it takes.”

Recalling that he waited on the set the whole day, Karan said: “It was fine because I would have waited there a week or a month. At 9 pm, he (Salman) asked me to come home now and narrate it. Then I went and narrated the first half of the script to him and at the interval point, he said ‘I am on’. I was shocked and told him, but you (Aman Mehra) come in the second half. But he said, ‘I know what’s gonna happen. I just wanted to hear you narrate the film.”

Karan also mentioned feeling apprehensive that Salman might have assumed he was taking Shah Rukh’s role. Karan added, “But he said he knew my dad and thought that I was passionate and promised that he was doing this film.”

Highlighting his bewilderment at the turn of events, the filmmaker said that he walked out of Salman Khan’s house feeling like Beyonce.

Recounting the first day of the shoot, Karan said: “We were filming the song “Saajanji Ghar Aaye” and Salman came in wearing torn jeans and a black t-shirt. We had made a suit for him. I was very scared of Salman and I am still. At that moment, he said ‘you know what, no dulha has ever worn torn jeans and made it a trend. Though I said okay, I immediately sensed my blood pressure rising. At one point I told him that the set is very grand and Kajol is wearing this huge lehenga. But he said he wants to do this in a T-shirt. I reluctantly said no and then burst out crying in front of him. I started pleading with him to wear the suit saying that it was my first film. He quickly agreed to wear the suit and asked me to stop crying.”

Explaining that he quickly grasped the strategy was to begin shedding tears, Karan revealed that while he was sobbing, Shah Rukh Khan entered the scene and teased him by remarking, “How embarrassing!”

Karan, however, noted that Salman Khan was sweet and amazing throughout the filming of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.

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