MUMBAI: Aamir Khan’s one of the best movies ‘Sarfarosh’ recently completed the silver jubilee after completing 25 years.The film’s main lead was Aamir Khan which gave him a break from the romantic film hero image. After the completion of 25 years, director of the movie John Matthew Matthan revealed that the producers of the film wanted Shah Rukh Khan to play the lead. However, Matthan was rigid with his decision to have Aamir Khan in the lead.
In an interview, John Matthew Matthan mentioned that he had made his decision clear that he wants only and only Aamir Khan for the lead after watching a scene of his film with Madhuri Dixit.
‘I was staying at a small guest house in Delhi. On television there, I saw a small scene from one of Aamir’s films where his character was going to rape Madhuri Dixit’s character. And I felt that this guy looks honest, he is not going to rape this girl and that this was just an act. But I felt he suits the role. He was not a big star back then actually. So when I came back to Mumbai and started work on Sarfarosh with Aamir in my mind,’ he said.
Although the team that is the producers wanted to cast Shah Rukh Khan. ‘I met my friend Manmohan Shetty, who owned Adlabs, and told him that I want to make a film. Around this time, Shetty had started Entertainment One to produce feature films. He had funded two films of my friends, both of which starred Shah Rukh Khan. One was Vikram Mehrotra’s ‘Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa’, directed by Kundan Shah and the other was Praveen Nischol’s ‘English Babu Desi Mem’. So at that time, all of them suggested I take Shah Rukh. I said, ‘Listen, I don’t think Shah Rukh suits my role. I don’t have him in my mind,’ but they said that we would be able to save more money as the three of us could get a deal, but I didn’t want to,’ he recalled.
He further mentioned, ‘Then I met Aamir. He read the script and said ‘yes’. Then I started studying Aamir, he had done only love stories. I felt that was good because he was unassuming. I needed a hero who transforms, then you are with him, rooting for him because you feel that this guy is too vulnerable. In a realistic movie like ‘Sarfarosh’, I needed the audience to feel for the guy. With all three considerations, I was sure I wanted Aamir.’
He also shared how Aamir Khan did not feel that ‘Sarfarosh’ was not commercial and the film’s release was delayed. ‘After ‘Sarfarosh’ was made and because he thought it was not commercial, he wanted it to come after a couple of commercial films due to which the film got delayed. But when ‘Sarfarosh’ finally released, it ran more than the other commercial films. It came after ‘Ghulam’. He then realised that he needs to do films which have original stories. So he then did ‘Lagaan’. There was a visible shift in his attitude after Sarfarosh. Post the film, he’s been doing movies that are ‘different’ from routine potboilers and that’s the reason he has stayed relevant all these years,’the director added.
The action thriller film casted Aamir Khan ‘Sarfarosh’ was released on April 30, 1999. Aamir Khan played ACP Ajay Singh Rathore in the film which also featured Naseeruddin Shah and Sonali Bendre,Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
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CREDIT:indiatoday
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