Before Aishwarya Rai played Salman Khan’s love interest in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, she was almost cast as Salman’s sister in Josh. The film, directed by Mansoor Khan, originally planned to feature Salman and Aamir Khan in the lead roles. Instead, Aishwarya ended up with Chandrachur Singh, while Shah Rukh played her brother.
In an old interview with Bollywood Hungama Aishwarya had said, “I think the cast was meant to be Aamir (Khan) and Salman at one point and eventually it became Shah Rukh and I think Aamir (Khan) was to play Chandrachur (Singh)’s role. So the cast kept changing at different points in time but Sherly remained Sherly. So I had said yes to Mansoor (Khan).”
Years later, fans were thrilled by the chance of seeing Salman Khan and Aishwarya Rai together again in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s epic, Bajirao Mastani. Salman was set to star as Bajirao with Aishwarya as Mastani. But the reunion never happened. Aishwarya revealed on Koffee With Karan that although Bhansali saw them as the perfect duo, circumstances prevented her from joining the project. She had said, “He [Sanjay] did see us working as the cast that he saw was ideal for the film. But circumstantially, I could not work with the kind of team he was looking at. I was game to play Mastani but not with the Bajirao he had in mind. So, this was evident probably nationally. The media made it out to be that Aishwarya walks out of Bajirao Mastani. We hadn’t communicated then because I was in hospital with my leg laid up.”
Sanjay later went on to make the film with Ranveer and Deepika. Bajirao Mastani is one of the biggest hits in Ranveer Singh and Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s careers. It went on to become the 11th highest-grossing Bollywood movie of all time, earning more than Rs. 300 crore at the global box office.
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Salman Khan never worked with each other again.
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