Aishwarya Rai, Sridevi, Madhuri Dixit refused to work with Shah Rukh Khan; film became blockbuster, won National Award

Before Shah Rukh Khan became the King of Romance, he famously played negative roles in three films - Baazigar, Darr, and Anjaam. The romantic psychological thriller Darr also starred Sunny Deol and Juhi Chawla in the leading roles. Interestingly, none of its three leads were the first choices for the film.

Aamir Khan, Rahul Roy, Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgn, and Sudesh Berry refused to play the antagonist Rahul Mehra, which Shah Rukh immortalised. Rishi Kapoor, Mithun Chakraborty, Jackie Shroff, and Nitish Bhardwaj didn't wish to play the role of Sunil Malhotra, which was eventually played by Sunny Deol. And the role of the leading lady was first offered to Aishwarya Rai, Sridevi, and Madhuri Dixit before Juhi Chawla came on board.

The legedary filmmaker Yash Chopra had first offered the film to Sridevi, with whom he had previously worked in Chandni and Lamhe in 1989 and 1991. She wanted the whole script to be changed to make her character as the obsessive lover, but the director refused. Chopra then offered the film to Madhuri, who rejected it due to unknown reasons.

In an interview with Bollywood Hungama in 2023, the famous costume designer Neeta Lulla revealed that Yash Chopra had also offered the film to Aishwarya Rai, who hadn't made her acting debut till then. She stated, "I met Aishwarya for the first time in late Yash (Chopra) ji's office, where he was contemplating casting her for Darr. I don't think many people know this. So we did a look test of sorts and he called me and said let's do a look test with her. When I saw her, Yash ji and I discussed and we said she was beautiful. But he said maybe it won't work out because she is going for the Miss World Pageant and she went away and that happened." Aishwarya Rai won Miss World in 1994 and made her acting debut in Mani Ratnam's Iruvar in 1997.

When Darr was released during the Christmas weekend in 1993, the film turned out to be blockbuster at the box office. It also went on to win the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment. Darr also received ten nominations at the Filmfare Awards and ended up winning two of them - Best Comedian for Anupam Kher and Best Cinematography for Manmohan Singh.

The DNA app is now available for download on the Google Play Store. Please download the app and share your feedback with us.