Abhishek was Mani's second choice

For all those who believe Abhishek Bachchan was the first and foremost choice for Mani Ratnam’s ‘Ravan’, it would come as a surprising revelation that Mani wanted to cast Shah Rukh Khan with Aishwarya as the lead pair of his multilingual project.



When Mani Ratnam called SRK regarding ‘Ravan’, the Khan superstar was enthusiastic and said he would certainly meet for the narration. However, according to a source, “Not many know that Shah Rukh was the first choice. Mani had written the script keeping him in mind. Also, when Mani approached Ash, she suggested that he should approach SRK for the role opposite her.”

A long delay in communication between the actor and Mani made SRK commit to director Aditya Chopra for ‘Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi’.

Actually there were two reasons for things not materializing in SRK's favour. Firstly, he had given up on ‘3 Idiots’ and secondly ‘Robots’ had fallen through with Shankar. So, both films were not happening and Shahrukh had time.

Talks with Mani had begun only when he came to Bombay, unfortunately, by the time they sat on it, Adi had already approached SRK for ‘Rab Ne…’, and he had committed to it.



When enquired about the curious buzz that shooting in jungles was the major cause of his rejection, Shah Rukh clarified, “That I just joke with everyone. I told Ashutosh agli baar jab ‘Jodhaa Akbar’ banayega (Shah Rukh was supposed to do Jodhaa Akbar!), toh yahan banana. I travel everywhere, I just joke with people. But if a film requires, then I will shoot anywhere. Like, for Karan Johar`s ‘My Name Is Khan’ I am shooting from Borivili to Boston. I have no issues, but I only like to time it so that when my kids have holidays, I can be with them.”

No worries...Abhi has all the ingredients required...do we doubt!!!