Bollywood actor Akshaye Khanna has been making the headlines for his exceptional performance in Laxman Utekar starrer Chhaava. Based on the life of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj, he essayed the role of the Mughal emperor Shahenshah Aurangzeb. Netizens and industry acquaintances alike have been heaping praises on his performance in the film. In the midst of it all, his old interview has surfaced on the internet where he reveals that director Amol Gupte wanted to cast him in Taare Zameen Par.
How Aamir Khan snatched ‘Taare Zameen Par’ from Akshaye Khanna, replaced director-writer Amol Gupte & ghost-directed the movie himself.
byu/Janaab_e_Marvel_3000 inBollyBlindsNGossip
Yes, you read that right! Released in 2007, Aamir Khan was not the first choice to essay the role of Ram Shankar Nikumbh in Taare Zameen Par but Khanna was. Talking about the same during an interview with MidDay, in the Sit with Hitlist segment, he opened up about how Gupte wanted to reach out to him with the opportunity. However, since the filmmaker didn’t have his contact and he was a friend of Aamir, he reached out to the latter.
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Quoted by BollywoodShaadis, the 49-year-old actor goes on to recall, “He approached Aamir because he was a friend of Aamir’s and said, ‘You know I really want to narrate this story to Akshaye, and I don’t know him, you just worked with him in Dil Chahata Hai, so can you call him and tell him I want to narrate him a script.’ So, Aamir, being Aamir, said, ‘I can’t recommend a script unless I hear it first, so make me hear it, and if I like it, I’ll tell Akshaye,’ and he liked it so much that he ended up doing it.”
The Ittefaq actor went on to add, “One day, I was shooting at one of these studios, I don’t remember, Mehboob, I think it was. And Aamir was also shooting for a film, so I just went to his van to say ‘hi,’ and then he was like, ‘Oh, you know what, this happened, and I didn’t allow him to come to you, and I did the film myself’.” He finished the conversation by saying that he had no issues with it.
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Well, the clip surfaced on the subreddit Bolly Blinds N Gossip. After watching the interview, netizens rushed to the comment section of the post to share their mixed reactions to the incident. While a section agrees that Akshaye would have done a better job in the film, than Aamir by bringing in seriousness that was needed, some expressed that the former wouldn’t have been able to pull as much crowd as Khan. They mentioned that the film gained fame because of the Dangal actor’s stardom.
Could Akshaye Khanna have done justice to Taare Zameen Par, if Amol Gupte went ahead with his earlier casting instead of letting it go to Aamir Khan? What do you think?