Aamir Khan and Sonali Bendre’s ‘Sarfarosh' has completed 25 years from its release yesterday.

Recently, the director of the film John Matthew Matthan talked about the casting for it back in days and shared that his friends and makers initially wanted to cast Shah Rukh Khan but didn’t have money to approach the actor so they opted for Aamir after watching the scenes of the actor with Madhuri Dixit.

In an interview, he said, "I was staying at a small guesthouse in Delhi. On television there, I saw a small scene from one of Amir'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 Amir in my mind.”

He added, "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 Nichol'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 concluded, "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. “

Directed by John Matthew Matthan, the film released on April 30, 1999.

Source: Indian Express