Curated By: Chirag Sehgal
Last Updated: September 28, 2023, 21:45 IST
Ameesha Patel played the role of Sakeena in Gadar.
Anil Sharma also claimed that even though one of the big actresses of that time had agreed to play Sakeena in Gadar, she was asking for a lot of money.
Gadar director Anil Sharma has revealed that when he finished writing ‘Gadar: Ek Prem Katha’ in 2001, he had several names in his mind for the role of Sakeena. In a recent interview, Sharma shared that he had thought of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Kajol also. He revealed that even though he approached a lot many actresses, some turned it down whereas others demanded a lot of money.
“When we were doing the film, I had a lot of names of actresses on my mind. Aishwarya, Kajol. There were a lot of them. I had to narrate the script to them, and two or three of them heard and also liked it. A few of them turned it down as well. I don’t want to go into why they rejected it,” the director told Bollywood Thikana.
“Back in the day, people would say, ‘Oh there is no Switzerland in the film so it must be a purane typi ki film.’ In the 90s, they would say this is a 70s film and now they call a film of today 90s film,” he added.
Anil Sharma also claimed that even though one of the big actresses of that time had agreed to play Sakeena in Gadar, she was asking for a lot of money. The director shared that the producers could not bear a lot of expense and therefore had asked him to choose either the actress or Amrish Puri.
“Zee told me that they spoke to an actress who had agreed to star in it but was charging a lot of money. But the budget was tight, so they told me I had to choose between the heroine or Amrish Puri! So I chose Amrish ji and said I will cast a new heroine. Amrish ji was absolutely necessary. There would have been no film without him. He had to be this powerful Ashraf Ali. Then we decided to cast a new face,” he said.
Therefore, Anil Sharma decided to cast a new face and Ameesha Patel was roped in for the film.
Meanwhile, Gadar 2 has also been ruling headlines. Released in August this year, the film saw Sunny Deol and Ameesha Patel reprising their roles as Tara Singh and Sakeena respectively. The film has already crossed Rs 500 crore mark at the domestic box office.
