Anil Kapoor was initially offered the lead role in Shah Rukh Khan’s Baazigar, here’s why the former said no

Baazigar marked a turning point in Shah Rukh Khan’s journey to becoming the Baadshah of Bollywood. The film saw Khan in one of his first lead roles, and went on to become a cult classic among cinephiles. But it seems that before Khan, Anil Kapoor was offered the lead role in the 1993 film. Directorial duo Abbas–Mustan, who helmed Baazigar, recently revealed why Kapoor said no to the role, and how it eventually went to Khan.

In conversation with Pinkvilla, the directors said that when they narrated the film to Kapoor, the actor said no. Kapoor had said that with the kind of films he was doing at the time, he would not be able to do a film like Baazigar, which entailed a more ‘anti hero’ kind of character.

Amrit Patel, who had worked with Khan in the series Fauji, had suggested Khan’s name to the directors. Patel had said that Khan was very ‘passionate’ and would do the role well.

When the directors approached Khan, the latter had insisted that Abbas-Mustan narrate the story to him so that he could get a better understanding of what they wanted out of the film. Even though the filmmakers were not confident about their ability to tell the story, they had done it anyway, and Khan had said yes to the role on the spot. “Even with our bad narration, SRK was so intelligent, he understood what we want from the film”, said the directors.

Abbas-Mustan recalled how they had watched Baazigar on the first day of its release, and were pleasantly surprised by the reaction Khan’s character got. “We did not expect this kind of reaction. The reaction was ‘this man is a superstar’. The audience was completely in SRK’s favour”, they said.

Baazigar, which also starred Kajol, Dalip Tahil and Shilpa Shetty, is available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video.