Dil Chahta Hai: Not Aamir and Saif, but Hrithik and Abhishek were Farhan Akhtar’s first choice

Farhan Akhtar began his journey in Bollywood 20 years ago as a filmmaker with Dil Chahta Hai, a coming-of-age buddy film featuring Aamir Khan, Akshaye Khanna and Saif Ali Khan. The story was one of a kind and till date is considered to be a cult classic. The performances, on the other hand, turned out to be milestones in the careers of each of the actors. While Akshaye was absolute perfection, Aamir won our hearts and Saif left us in splits. All in all, we couldn’t have asked for a better cast. But did you know that Saif and Aamir were not Farhan’s first choice for Dil Chahta Hai?

In a chat with Rajeev Masand, Farhan revealed, “When I first wrote Dil Chahta Hai, the actors I wanted to cast were Akshaye Khanna, Hrithik Roshan and Abhishek Bachchan. They were the first three names I had in mind. They had just debuted and I felt that it was the right age for the characters. And Akshaye was the first person I ever met actually (for the film). He heard the draft and just immediately told me, 'I am on'. And I had met him for the role that Aamir eventually did. So I wanted him to play Akash, I wanted Hrithik to be Sameer and I wanted Abhishek to be Sid.”

While Akshaye agreed to be a part of the project, it was a challenge for Farhan to convince other actors as it was a three-hero film which belonged to Akash. Farhan began thinking that the film would never be made, but that’s when he met Ritesh Sidhwani who came on board and instilled confidence. Farhan then discussed the project with Saif, who loved the script, and told him that he will approach Aamir next. Saif had just one condition-- if Aamir agreed, he would be on board too.

10 months later, he met Aamir. The actor read the English draft and asked for a Hindi one. He also wasn’t sure that Farhan could direct it. Farhan remembered, “Aamir told me that 'I am doing this film, Sarfarosh (1999) followed by Mann (1999). And both the characters in these films are quite serious. I am looking at playing a light-hearted character. So are you okay if I play Akash's part?' I told him that I do not doubt that he'll be able to pull it off. But I said that I'll have to speak to Akshaye Khanna as he was the first guy I ever met and came on board.” When he requested Akshaye to play Sid’s role instead of Akash’s character, the actor was not upset. In fact, he surprised Farhan by saying, “Listen, I want to do the film. So I'll do it.”

Isn’t it crazy how great things can turn out even if they don’t go according to the original plan? Well, we are glad that in the end Aamir, Saif and Akshaye became our beloved Akash, Sameer and Sid.