When Salman Khan was supposed to join Shah Rukh Khan in Pardes!

As many would remember, it was the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Pardes which bailed out director-producer Subhash Ghai in the 90’s after he delivered a debacle in the name of Trimurti. And, as many Shah Rukh Khan fans will remember, he was pitted against two newcomers Mahima Chaudhary and Apurva Agnihotri, who essayed the part of Ganga and the NRI boy respectively.

It has now been a few days over two decades now since the film released, and on that occasion, Mr. Ghai had once again kept a screening of the film for a select few. It was during a media interaction after the screening that Ghai revealed an interesting detail about a decision related to the casting of the film.

When Ghai was asked about the challenges of putting this film together after almost being termed as a director of the past, he said, “As a director I had to face two challenges while making ‘Pardes’. First as a producer I was facing a challenge as our banner Mukta Arts’ last film ‘Trimurti’ didn’t do well at the box office. So, after delivering so many hit films, if you give a flop film then somewhere the attitude of the film industry, stars, media slightly changes towards you a bit. So, I was receiving a lot of flak at that time that my banner is finished, I am finished, I am now past. There were some who were even happy due to this. But, I didn’t want to let them have the satisfaction. I decided to make a film, and wrote the story of ‘Pardes’. Then, as a producer I faced a challenge, when after writing the story, the discussion about the casting of the film began. That was a very big problem. So, at that time our manager Gupta ji of Mukta Arts, used to discuss about the casting, setup, about the budget, at what price it might be sold, how the distributors will behave for this film, what would be their reaction, etc. So, he suggested me there would be a casting of Shah Rukh Khan and the role of NRI boy could be done by Salman (Khan), and Madhuri (Dixit) would be perfect to play the central character. Initially, I had even told the idea of Ganga (the heroine’s character name in ‘Pardes’) to Madhuri while we were shooting for ‘Khalnayak’ and she had liked it. But, I thought of a setup where there should have been a new girl, a new boy for NRI’s role and Shah Rukh Khan.”

Well, given that by then, their Jodi had already worked wonders in Karan Arjun, this would have been one helluva casting coup and a yet another gem for all the Bollywood buffs to cherish, don’t you think so?

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