Were Govinda and Kajol First Offered Gadar?

Before director Anil Sharma stated how Govinda misunderstood, it was believed that Govinda and Kajol were the initial cast members for Gadar.

Gadar: Ek Prem Katha, starring Sunny Deol and Ameesha Patel, is enjoying a triumphant second run in theatres, with spectators cheering, applauding, and mouthing language along with the protagonist character Tara Singh. The re-release served as a marketing ploy prior to the sequel’s August 11 release. There were persistent claims, nevertheless, that this was not the film’s original cast.

Some rumors claim that Govinda and Kajol were the original cast members of the movie, in accordance with the rumored trivia. Anil Sharma, the director, addressed the rumors about Govinda and Neelam, the legendary 90s acting duo, which have also been the subject of various reports.

The filmmaker acknowledged the popular claims that Govinda was initially offered the role in the movie before Sunny Deol took it. Even a website’s trivia notes that Anil Sharma initially offered the role to Govinda, but after the failure of Maharaja, he changed his mind and selected Gadar instead.

Anil Sharma said, “This is an outright lie. People talk. The truth of the matter is that I was working with Govinda on Maharaja. During Maharaja, I told him the story of Gadar. He perhaps misunderstood that I wanted to cast him in the film, and that’s how the rumours originated.”

Anil Sharma even mentioned how he had no other actor in mind for Gadar but Sunny Deol. “I would work with him (Govinda) in a heartbeat on not one but ten films, but I never wanted to do Gadar with him. Sunny Deol was the first and last choice for the central role.”

Even the Saqeena character, which was reported to have been offered to Neelam and later Kajol, which was played by Ameesha Patel, was brought up to him. The director denied talking to Neelam, but he did neither confirm or deny Kajol’s connection to Gadar. He further clarified, “I had approached several big actresses of the time; Neelam was definitely not one of them. They all had some problem or the other. Some didn’t like the story; others didn’t like us. Some had their own personal agendas; some didn’t want to do period films.”

The unfamiliar, Gadar: Ek Prem Katha is the love story of a Sikh boy from India and a Muslim girl from Pakistan who marry under terrible conditions against the backdrop of the India-Pakistan partition but forge a strong love bond only to be torn apart later because of the strained relations between the two countries following the partition.

Another popular legend said that the movie was partially based on the true story of Boota Singh. On August 11, Gadar 2 will hit theatres and will compete with Akshay Kumar’s Oh My God 2 and Animal, both starring Ranbir Kapoor.