Farah Khan recalls issues faced while casting actors for Main Hoon Na, says, 'Except Shah Rukh Khan, all....'

Main Hoon Na is an iconic 2004 Bollywood movie directed by Farah Khan and starring Shah Rukh Khan, Sushmita Sen, Sunil Shetty, Amrita Rao, and Zayed Khan in important roles. Shah Rukh Khan played Major Ram Sharma, an officer who goes undercover as a college student to protect a general's daughter from a rogue soldier, played by Naseeruddin Shah. Supporting characters included Kirron Kher and Boman Irani. Farah Khan recently recalled the making of the film and had something interesting to say.

Farah Khan recalls issues faced while casting actors for Main Hoon Na

In conversation with casting director Mukesh Chhabra, Farah Khan expressed the mountainous challenges faced by her on the film sets. She mentioned that, except for Shah Rukh Khan and Sushmita Sen, nobody had confirmed their onscreen roles in the film, leaving her scrambling like a madwoman at the last minute to find suitable actors.

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Farah said, “In almost all my films, I faced problems with respect to casting actors. Shah Rukh Khan is the only one who never threw any tantrums and always readily agreed to be a part of my films. If I talk about Main Hoon Na, the project did not have a casting director. So, I, as a director, used to make time to cast actors as well.”

Farah recalled that she read numerous portfolios to hunt for actors for the film. She said, “Except Shah Rukh (my good friend) and Sushmita (with whom I connected well over a call), no actor finalised their presence in the film.” The filmmaker said that Zayed Khan was cast in the film at the last minute.

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“Hrithik Roshan was expected to play Zayed’s role. But after the success of Kaho Na Pyaar Hai in 2000, he... (left). Later, I approached Abhishek Bachchan and Sohail Khan, but due to their commitments to other projects, they could not be a part of the project. With barely a month remaining for the shoot of the film to start, I decided to approach Zayed, and he said yes for the film,” she said.

The filmmaker added that Amrita Rao also joined the team just 15 days before the commencement of the film’s shoot. Initially, Ayesha Takia was cast in the film, but she was so busy shooting a film with Imtiaz Ali that she could not spare time for Main Hoon Na.

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