Filmmaker Kabir Khan began his journey in Bollywood with Yash Raj Films. Despite his debut film Kabul Express being an experimental project for YRF, it was well-received. When Kabir began working on New York, Aditya Chopra suggested he cast Katrina Kaif, but Katrina wasn’t too interested in the film.
Kabir, during a chat on Mashbale India’s YouTube channel, said, “When Katrina came in, this was going to be her first film with Yash Raj, so she came and I think, she was a little disappointed by the film when she heard it. She was wanting to hear maybe a love story, song and dance, and she was like ‘what kind of film is this?’” During the production of Kabul Express, Kabir had a chance encounter with Salman Khan, which later helped in the casting of Katrina in New York.
The filmmaker shared, “Those days, she was seeing Salman. Salman asked her ‘how was the meeting?’ She said ‘there is a new filmmaker who has made one film and he offered me a film. It’s interesting but I don’t know’. Salman asked ‘who is the filmmaker?’ so she said ‘there’s this guy called Kabir Khan’. So apparently, Salman said ‘aankh band karke picture sign kar lo, I have met the boy’ (sign the film with your eyes closed, I have met the boy). It’s so sweet that he remembered that one meeting.”
Kabir also remembered filming New York, which starred Neil Nitin Mukesh and John Abraham alongside Katrina. He shared that they spent 100 days shooting in New York, and the experience was quite new for Katrina. “For a long time, when she came on the set, she kept calling me sir. I finally had to say ‘yaar, your boyfriend is four years older than me, please don’t call me sir’,” he rememebered.
Kabir also said that he would often accidentally address Katrina as Kareena. “For the first 20 days, I would call her Kareena and then slowly when we became friends, I became used to Katrina. Then during Bajrangi Bhaijaan, for a long time, I called Kareena, Katrina,” he said.
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