Shah Rukh Khan asked Zayed Khan ‘Can you act?’ before casting him in Main Hoon Na: ‘I felt bad, wanted to ask can you act’

Farah Khan made her first directorial Main Hoon Na in 2004 and while she already had Shah Rukh Khan locked in for the lead role, she was still looking for an actor to play Lucky when she met Zayed Khan. In a recent interview, Zayed recalled how he landed the role and said that getting the film was an “accident.” He said that upon his first meeting with Shah Rukh, who was also producing the film, he was asked, “Can you act?” and he felt bad when he was asked this question. He said that he wanted to respond to Shah Rukh by asking him if he could act.

In a chat of the YouTube channel Couple of Things, Zayed said that he had initially called Farah because he wanted her to choreograph one of the songs of his film Chura Liya Hai Tumne. She asked him to call after a week and when he did so, she called him to Shah Rukh Khan’s office. “Farah looks at me and I tell her that ‘Farah, firstly, I don’t know why am I here but… She says ‘just shut up for two minutes’. I felt she is very rude. I am like trying my level best to make conversation and Shah Rukh walks in. He is usual Shah Rukh, very sweet, very loving, very well-mannered,” he recalled.

Zayed then recalled Shah Rukh explaining him about the film. “He said ‘we have called you to talk about a film of ours. I am producing a film called Main Hoon Na’. I was just listening to him but couldn’t really compute. Then he says that we have called you about the second lead part in Main Hoon Na,” he recalled and added that it was at this point that Shah Rukh asked him if he could act.

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“I couldn’t say anything so he goes ‘yeh sab idhar udhar ki baatein band karte hain. I just want to ask one question ‘Kya tum actor ho? Acting kar sakte ho?’ Mujhe bada bura laga ki aise mujhse kisine aise baat kia. Maine bola I was born to act. It came from a point of view that I wasn’t trying to be arrogant or anything. I was feeling very bad that he asked me that can you act? I wanted to ask him can you act? When I answered he just chuckled,” Zayed recalled.

Main Hoon Na also starred Sushmita Sen, Amrita Rao, Suniel Shetty among others.