Karan Johar thanks Rani Mukerji for coming to his rescue during Kuch Kuch Hota Hai – Times of India

At a recent event, Karan Johar thanked Rani Mukerji, who came for his rescue for one of his films. The duo’s first collaboration was Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Karan who was making a debut as a director with this film was having a hard time casting a heroine for the role of Tina Malhotra.
The actor remembers the instance saying, “There were some eight heroines who had turned down the offer to play the role of Tina. It was Aditya Chopra who suggested that I should see the trailer of Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat (which starred Rani). And then it was me and the associate director of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Nikhil Advani who went to Rani’s house for a meeting and she said yes to do the film.”

Karan, who had initially written the role of Tina for Twinkle Khanna, had also offered the role to Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. In his past media interaction, he also mentioned that he struggled to get a heroine on board and had also reached out to Urmila Matondkar and Tabu for the part. However, as they all turned him down, it was Rani who got the part and the success of the film turned out to be a landmark in her career.

Not only this, Johar’s ambitious project also hit a roadblock as he faced hurdles roping in an actor for Aman Mehra’s role which was played by Salman Khan. “Even for Salman’s part in the movie, I had to search a lot. Finally, it all happened,” he had said at an earlier event.