Jab We Met: Not Shahid Kapoor-Kareena Kapoor but these were the OG choices for the Imtiaz Ali film - Did you know?

Jab We Met—the name of this film is enough to make us all get up and say "Yeh Ishq Haaye!" But did you know the road to "Mauja Hi Mauja" was not that easy? What if we tell you that Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor were not initially Imtiaz Ali’s choices for the film’s lead? Yes, you read that right! Imtiaz's original choices for the film were Bobby Deol and Ayesha Takia.

How Shahid Kapoor got the role in Jab We Met

As Imtiaz Ali was very close friends with Bobby Deol, he initially approached him for the role. However, Bobby kept delaying, which led the director to approach Shahid, who eventually signed on. No one can deny that Imtiaz Ali and Shahid made one of the best decisions of their lives by working on this film together. The character of Aditya Kashyap remains one of Shahid's most loved and iconic roles to date. 

In an interview with Lallantop, the Tamasha director opened up about his plans to cast Bobby Deol as the lead. He shared, “I was planning to make Jab We Met with Bobby Deol. When I was making this film, Bobby and I were very good friends. His family… they are very nice people. But Socha Na Tha took five years to make and release. Meanwhile, I was trying to start a new film, so Bobby was going to do Jab We Met. Then Socha Na Tha got over, but I still didn’t make the film for two years because I wanted Bobby to start it (Jab We Met).”

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He further elaborated on why he eventually gave up on casting Deol, saying, “Because I did Socha Na Tha for five years and I didn’t do a film for two years after that, it was putting financial strain on me. Then I told Bobby, ‘Let’s not make this film. Let’s shake hands and decide we will not do this film together because our friendship might get affected.’”

How did Kareena Kapoor get on board

So now you know how Shahid got on board. But what about Kareena? How did she become part of this iconic film? As we all know, during the time when Jab We Met happened, Kareena and Shahid were dating. In fact, it was their last film as a couple. In a Mid-Day interview, Kareena revealed that Shahid had actually convinced her to do the film. She shared, “Imtiaz came out of the blue, and it so happened. He approached Shahid, and Shahid told me, ‘Hey, listen, you know, he’s going to approach you for this role, and it’s great.’ And I was like, yeah, I’ll work. I’ll do this movie. I never knew that it would be this iconic.”

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