Before agreeing to star in Yash Chopra’s Darr, Aamir Khan was certain he did not want to be physically assaulted by Sunny Deol.
Actor Aamir Khan has never shied away from dropping bombshells in the media. And he once did the same thing with director Yash Chopra, who took the actor’s position from Darr and said he was curious to know how many punches Sunny Deol would take. Later, the actor took the spotlight to discuss every aspect of his casting in Darr before leaving the movie.
The Ghulam actor went so far as to call out Yash Chopra’s blatant fabrications and accuse him of defrauding both Sunny Deol and himself. Prior to Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir was the first actor to be given the role, and the actor was eager to accept because he was already working on the Yash Chopra-directed movie Parampara. However, he left after accusing the director of defrauding him.
Later, Yash Chopra claimed in an interview that Sunny Deol was replaced because Aamir Khan demanded to know how many punches he had delivered. This infuriated the actor, who detailed what actually transpired in a 1997 interview. He said, “Regarding Yash Chopra’s accusation, I’d like to put things in perspective. In the first narration, he told me that Sunny (Deol) and I would fight, but it would be Juhi (the woman whom I was obsessed with and harassing) who would kill me. That was poetic justice. Then I came to know that he had narrated a different climax to Sunny in which Sunny would kill me. So I asked for a joint narration.”
The actor for Fanaa went so far as to emphasise that Yash Chopra had made it clear to the cast and crew that Sunny Deol and his characters will engage in a fair battle with an equal exchange of blows. Aamir was conscious of his on-screen persona and did not want to be portrayed getting physically assaulted by a typical hero in a mainstream movie.
In the same interview he justified his stand by saying, “See, I didn’t mind being beaten up by Deepak Tijori in Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar because that was a different kind of film. But if you have a casting coup like Sunny and me then I certainly don’t want to be beaten up by him or even Arnold Schwarzenegger for that matter. Is there anything wrong with that?”
Aamir and Yash Chopra later fell out over the same issue—last-minute script changes—and oddly, so did Sunny Deol and Yash Chopra. In numerous interviews, Sunny Deol stated that he was never informed that the film’s anti-hero is actually the main protagonist. He had always been informed that both actors contributed equally. Even the Gadar actor described Yash Chopra as “not a man of his word” and never engaged in business with YRF.
However, someone’s loss is someone else’s gain, and in this instance Shah Rukh Khan became a superstar because to Darr.
