Not Shah Rukh Khan, THIS Actor Was First Choice To Star With Rishi Kapoor In ‘Deewana’
Shah Rukh Khan made his Bollywood debut with the 1992 film ‘Deewana’, which landed him the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut Actor.
Shah Rukh Khan is regarded as the ‘Badshah of Bollywood’ thanks to the innumerable hits he has given over the years, and his business acumen, which has seen him build a media empire. However, things might have turned out different if some things went differently in his life. Shah Rukh Khan made his Bollywood debut with the 1992 film ‘Deewana’, which also starred Rishi Kapoor and Divya Bharti. Surprisingly, though, King Khan was not the first choice for the role of Raja Sahi in ‘Deewana’. Actor Avinash Wadhawan, who has starred in movies like ‘Phool Bane Patthar’, ‘Papi Gudia’ and ‘Junoon’ among others, has claimed that the movie was first offered to him by director Raj Kanwar.
“Raju [filmmaker Raj Kanwar] mujhse milne aya. Booaton baaton mein usne mujhe bola ki mujhe film ka offer aya hai as a director. There are 3 producers. Hum ek film produce kar rahe hai jisme there are 2 heroes. Rishi Kapoor ji has already been signed. Aur ek nayi ladki hai Divya Bharti usko we are taking and the second hero is not yet finalised. Aur Avinash main tujhse milne aya hu, us role ke liye,” actor Avinash Wadhawan said during an interview Siddharth Kannan.
“Maine usko bola ki Raju second hero ki to entry interval ke just pehle hai. The whole film focused on Rishi Kapoor and Divya Bharti. So, I said yaar I am doing all solo hero films at this moment. Aur Rishi Ji ki bahut respect karta hu mai. Mere bahut favourite rahe hai vo. Unki sab filmein maine dekhi hai. Mujhe aise lagta hai ki wo mere se age-wise bade lgengey. He tried to convince me ki nahi nahi Avinash, you do it. You know Deewana, you are playing the title role. He was forcing Me to do that role. He was trying his best ki mai haan boldu,” he added.
Avinash then revealed that after his unavailability, director Raj Kanwar approached others but the female lead in the movie Divya Bharti, who apparently knew SRK from before, suggested his name.
“Then he went to other people. Then finally I think Divya only suggested Shah Rukh. Divya knew Shah Rukh. He got him introduced to Raj Kanwar and that's how they signed it,” said Avinash.
‘Deewana’ proved to be quite a successful film, minting over 13 crore at the time, a number which in today’s time could easily be above 100 crore.
