‘Shahid Kapoor played the role I was supposed to, Kareena Kapoor didn’t even want to do film’: Bobby Deol recalls being ‘heartbroken’ after being removed from Jab We Met

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He continued, “I met some producers and they rejected Imtiaz for some reason. I sent him to Kareena Kapoor, but she sweetly heard it and said no. A year passed, and I asked Preity Zinta, but she said that she could do it only after six months. Some time later, the same producers who rejected Imtiaz had hired him along with Kareena. Shahid Kapoor played the role I was supposed to play. The movie was called Geet originally, because it was her story. It was my destiny, I was not meant to be in it. But at that time, I was heartbroken. I had no work.”

Bobby had spoken about the fallout in a 2017 interview with HuffPost, where he recalled how devastated he was by the betrayal. “I was like, wow. Quite an industry… But I have no hard feelings against him. He is a great director and doing so well. We’re still friends. But I always tell him: ‘Imtiaz, I won’t watch any of your films until you make one with me. That’ll be your best film,” he said.

In a 2020 interview with Film Companion, Kareena admitted that she didn’t have high hopes for Jab We Met, because she was doing the far more glamorous Tashan at the same time. “I am working with Yash Raj Films. I am doing a film with Anil Kapoor, Akshay Kumar, Saif Ali Khan. I am playing the main part. I have become size zero. I have lost weight. I’m going to wear a bikini. I’m going to kill it. That was my vibe when I was on the set of Jab We Met. This, I’m just shooting, I’m mouthing my lines. Yes, I’m having fun, but that’s the film that’s going to change my life, and I’m going to become like Uma Thurman,” she said.

Imtiaz shared a different account of the incident in an interview with The Lallantop. He blamed Bobby for causing a delay and leaving him with no choice. “I was planning to make Jab We Met with Bobby Deol. When I was making this film, Bobby and I were very good friends. His family… they are very nice people. But Socha Na Tha took five years to make and release. Meanwhile, I was trying to start a new film so Bobby was going to do Jab We Met. Then Socha Na Tha got over but I still didn’t make the film for two years because I wanted Bobby to start it (Jab We Met). But he was getting other offers from big directors, so he was waiting for that to happen. He kept postponing my film, but then a time came when I didn’t find it correct because a lot of time went by. Because I did Socha Na Tha for five years and I didn’t do a film for two years after that, so it was putting financial strain on me. Then I told Bobby, ‘Let’s not make this film. Let’s shake our hands and decide we will not do this film together because then our thing will be affected,” he said.