Shah Rukh Khan refused to star in Deewana; could do it only because Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman shoot got cancelled, reveals film’s producer

In an interview shared on Reddit, Guddu recalled how Shah Rukh landed the role. In an interview with RJ Anmol, he said, “I was making a film but the hero said no. Shekhar (Kapoor) suggested, ‘Take Shah Rukh’. So, I asked, ‘Who is Shah Rukh?‘ and he said, have you seen the serial ‘Cirkus, Fauji’…He said ‘I can blindly tell you to take Shah Rukh’.

The producer eventually fixed a meeting with Shah Rukh in Delhi and the actor entered the venue at 12 pm. As the producer look at SRK, he was convinced that he wanted the actor for his film.

Guddu further narrated, “I told Shah Rukh that we have to do a film but he said he couldn’t do a film because he was already doing five films. So, I suggested that you at least listen to the plot of the film.”

Shah Rukh asked the producer to come to his home to narrate the film. After listening to the narration, the actor agreed to do the film but said that he could only give him the dates if one of his ongoing film’s shoot got cancelled.

As fate would have it, Guddu said, “Again, I will say that the almighty writes the scripts, destiny is such that the film for which dates were not available gets released first and is the biggest hit amongst those other five films.”

He also shared that he got Shah Rukh’s dates for Deewana because the shoot of Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman got cancelled. “Shah Rukh called that his 20 days of shoot was cancelled and if I wanted to do it. I said yes…I remember we had a Poonawala Bungalow in Madh Island and we used to shoot there. It was Divya Bharti’s home. We used to take Shah Rukh from Versova on a jetty,” Guddu recalled.

The filmmaker Guddu also remembered one of his auto rides with Shah Rukh during which the actor was upset since one of his songs got bad reviews.

“One day we were going in an auto. He had come back from some outdoor shoot and one of his film’s song’s buzz in the market was like that the actor is nice but he doesn’t look nice while singing. He said, “Guddu 5 pictures kar raha hun and 6th teri hai (Guddu, I am doing 5 films and 6th one is yours) Agar chala to rukunga, aur agar nahi to Delhi waapas par tereko ek baat bolu?” (If I succeed I will stay, and if not then I will go back to Delhi. But should I say something?) I asked what? and he said, “Main Chalunga hi Chalunga (I will succeed),” the film producer shared.

The actor’s confidence proved right as he delivered one hit after another and became the ‘Badshah’ of Bollywood.

Shah Rukh Khan is currently winning over the audience with his film Jawan. This is the actor’s second release of 2023 and one of the biggest blockbusters of the year so far. Post this, he will be seen in Raj Kumar Hirani’s Dunki, which is expected to be released in December.