When Shah Rukh Khan said ‘Armaan Kohli is responsible for making me a star’ because he dropped out of Deewana

Actor Armaan Kohli, who is under the Narcotics Control Bureau’s scanner in a drugs-related investigation, has had many false starts in his career. After making his debut in 1992’s Virodhi, the actor made somewhat of a comeback a decade later with Jaani Dushman: Ek Anokhi Kahani. Later, in another bid to revive his career, he appeared in the seventh season of Bigg Boss.

But did you know that the actor was offered a role in the film Deewana, which eventually went to Shah Rukh Khan in his feature film debut? Armaan in a 2015 interview spoke about not doing the film, and how he has no regrets.

Asked if he looks back and wonders if life would’ve been different if he’d done Deewana, he told Bollywood Hungama, “If we start thinking about the past and what we could’ve done, our life will be hell. So generally I don’t sit and regret and think about, ‘Oh, I should have done that, if I had done that then this would have happened’. I wish I had thought that way. I would have been somewhere else, for sure. But, as I said, there is no regret. If I lost Deewana, Mr Shah Rukh Khan got Deewana, and he’s the superstar of the country. I’m pretty okay with that.”

Not just Deewana, Armaan said that he has ‘lost a lot of films’. He said, “Every film that I’ve left, 80% were super-hits’ big, big superstars have come into the industry because of that.” He said that he hadn’t spoken to Shah Rukh about the situation, and admitted that had he been in the film, it might not have been as successful.

Also read: When Shah Rukh Khan said he ‘overacted terribly’ in Deewana: ‘I saw myself on screen, I was appalled’

Incidentally, Shah Rukh once admitted that he ‘overacted terribly’ in Deewana. In an old interview with Filmfare, Shah Rukh had said, “I’m glad the film has done so well…But I don’t think I’ve contributed in any way to its success. My performance was awful–loud, vulgar and uncontrolled. I overacted terribly and I take full responsibility for it… I am my worst critic and when I saw myself on the screen I was appalled. Isn’t it amazing that people have liked me in the film? Perhaps that’s because I am a fresh face. It’s not a performance I’d care to repeat or remember.”

In an appearance on the show Yaaron Ki Baraat in 2016, Shah Rukh said that he owes his career to Armaan, who even featured on a poster for Deewana before Shah Rukh replaced him at the last minute after Armaan had shot a schedule for the film. “Armaan Kohli is responsible for me being a star. He featured on the Deewana poster with late Divya Bharti. I still have that poster. Thank you for making me a star,” Shah Rukh said.

The NCB on Saturday conducted a raid at Armaan Kohli’s Mumbai house, where drugs were recovered after a six-hour search. News agency ANI reported that after the raid, an NCB team took Armaan to its office. Drugs were recovered from his house during the search. He was arrested on Sunday.