Not Student of the Year with Sidharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt could have debuted opposite Aditya Narayan in Sanjay Leela Bhansali directorial

By Subhash K. Jha -

March 3, 2022 - 5:00 PM IST

If fate had willed, Alia Bhatt’s first film co-star would have been Aditya Narayan, singer Udit Narayan’s talented son, who is now a multi-tasker. Aditya started his career as a child actor. He played Salman Khan’s son in Jab Pyar Kissise Hota Hai.

Not Student of the Year with Sidharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt could have debuted opposite Aditya Narayan in Sanjay Leela Bhansali directorial

Aditya was all set to play the lead in a Sanjay Leela Bhansali directorial at the age of 10, with none other than Alia Bhatt as his co-star. That’s right! Bhansali was making a love story about child marriage entitled Hamari Jaan Ho Tum. It was based on Rabindranath Tagore’s short story “Samapti” which was also the source material for Uphaar where Jaya Bhaduri played the child bride.

Bhansali had auditioned scores of children for the two leads and had zeroed in on Aditya and Alia. “They were magical together. Both natural-born actors aged 9 and 10 and raring to go. But we couldn’t make the film. Now, it’s too late. I can never find my perfect leads to play the child bride and child groom,” says Bhansali.

Incidentally, the title song of Hamari Jaan Ho Tum composed by Bhansali showed up in his Saawariya where Alia’s beau Ranbir Kapoor made his debut.

Hamari Jaan Ho Tum is not the only Alia starrer that Bhansali had to shelve. Two years ago, he was all set to make Inshallah with Alia and Salman Khan. This project was unceremoniously dropped due to excessive interference from Mr. Khan. Among other things, Salman wanted Sushmita Sen and Daisy Shah to be part of Inshallah.

Another project that Bhansali dropped was Bajirao Mastani with Salman Khan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. But it never happened.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Kareena Kapoor Khan also came really close to working together on several occasions. Right, after the success Hum…Dil De Chuke Sanam, SLB decided to make Devdas with Kareena Kapoor Khan as Paro and Madhuri Dixit as Chandramukhi. Kareena’s costumes were ready. But then overnight Bhansali changed his mind and signed Aishwarya Rai Bachchan instead. Kareena felt betrayed and humiliated.

Soon after Bhansali wanted to make to a film on Mahatma Gandhi’s troubled relationship with his son Harilal. “What do you think of Kareena as Kasturba?” Bhansali asked me one day. I was all for it. That project was taken over by Anil Kapoor who produced the film with Akshaye Khanna as Harilal.

After this, Kareena was signed to play Mastani opposite Salman’s Bajirao. I was there at the photo-shoot and Kareena looked stunning with Salman. This project was ruined by Salman when he quickly got in touch with Priyadarshan and offered himself and Kareena as a pair of Kyun Ki. To this day, we don’t know why Salman ruined the exclusivity of the Bajirao Mastani pair.

After this, SLB wanted to work with Kareena in Black. But, Mr. Bachchan vetoed the idea. Then came Ram Leela which Bhansali wanted to do with Ranveer and Kareena. But, he wanted Kareena to give him a very large number of dates which she was not ready to commit to. “The time Sanjay wants, I can do three films,” she reasoned with me. Deepika Padukone stepped in and Ranveer fell in love with her. Just think. If Kareena had not opted out of Ram Leela, Ranveer would not have fallen in love with Deepika.

This is one love story that owes a debt to Kareena and her infinite fiascos with Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

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