Director Karan Johar made his directorial debut in 1998 with ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.’ The movie starred Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, and Rani Mukerji in lead roles. Almost 26 years since its release, the movie has gained cult status in Bollywood. However, in a latest interview, Farah Khan revealed that Shah Rukh was reluctant to play the role of Rahul in the film for a particular reason.
In a conversation with Radio Nasha, Farah Khan revealed why Shah Rukh Khan was apprehensive to play the role of Rahul in ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.’ Farah mentioned that Shah Rukh did not want to play the role of a college kid in the Karan Johar directorial because he felt that he was ‘too old’ to play the role. However, Farah wanted to make a young film with Shah Rukh because of his performance in the movie. She said, “After ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’, I just wanted to make a young film. Shah Rukh ne mar mar ke ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ kiya, he used to say I am too old to play this college boy and he was 30 at that time!”
She mentioned that she wanted to make ‘Main Hoon Na’ with Shah Rukh, so she came up with a creative solution. She continued, “So I reverse-engineered ‘Main Hoon Na’. I wanted to make a college film only with Shah Rukh. But why will Shah Rukh go to college? So, the whole thing worked backwards. That if he has to go to college, he will go undercover.”
In the same conversation, she mentioned that ‘Main Hoon Na’ started as a small script. However, she kept adding elements because she felt that the script was small. She continued, “It started as a small movie about Shah Rukh bursting a drug ring in the college, where his brother is also there, and Shah Rukh falls in love with the chemistry teacher. But while writing I kept feeling this is a bit small, and then the whole India-Pakistan, Project Milap, Raghavan (Suniel Shetty) bits kept adding and the film grew.”
On the work front, Farah Khan’s last directorial was ‘Happy New Year’ in 2014.
