With the ongoing buzz about David Letterman's popular talk-show, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction which featured our beloved King Khan on October 25 on Netflix, I almost certainly feel that Shah Rukh Khan could just do interviews and release them in theatres, which could actually work better than his movies. Or maybe I feel that way as I am an SRK fanatic, more than anything else. Even so, I have had my doubts about some of his movie choices. It might come as a surprise to a lot of fans that the 'Badshah of Bollywood' actually rejected certain films which later turned out to be blockbusters. What a bummer! So, on Shah Rukh Khan's 54th birthday, we bring to you a list of movies he didn't sign that went on to be big hits anyway.
Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire won eight Academy Awards, and created history in the world of cinema. It got India two Oscar too. However, Anil Kapoor, who played the role of the quiz master Prem Kumar in the film, can pretty well thank King Khan for the accolades he still receives after a decade of the movie's release. You ask me why? It's because that role was first offered to our SRK! Apparently, the director visited SRK's residence Mannat in Bandra and couldn't meet the actor, and well, it eventually went to Anil.
3 Idiots (2009)
Who didn't love Rajkumar Hirani's take on Chetan Bhagat's best-selling novel Five Point Someone? We all know, 3 Idiots is one of the best films ever made, and well, SRK rejected that film too. It starred Aamir Khan, R Madhavan, and Sharman Joshi in lead roles. During one of the episodes of Karan Johar’s famous talk show Koffee with Karan, King Khan called himself the fourth idiot for rejecting the film. Is that a surprise even? (add rolling my eyes smiley)
Kaho Na Pyaar Hai (2000)
Shah Rukh was Rakesh Roshan’s first choice for Kaho Na Pyaar Hai after the former's film Koyla failed at the box-office. Well, things obviously didn't work out and Rakesh decided to launch his son Hrithik instead, as the main lead. We all know what happened after that. The film went on to set the box office on fire and won several prestigious awards. Most importantly, Hrithik won every Best Actor in a leading role award that year.
Robot (2010)
Well, well, this might be a surprise, but it is a fact. Tamil director S Shankar wanted Shah Rukh for his film Robot, the one which Rajinikanth eventually did in Tamil.Enthiran (the Tamil version of Robot) also created history grossing around a whopping 375 crores worldwide. Apparently, SRK rejected the film because he had suggested some changes in the script that the director refused to entertain. Another speculated reason for the clash was because Shankar wanted to do the film's Computer Graphics (CG) at Hollywood's Stan Winston Studios, but King Khan wanted Red Chillies VFX to do it.
Jodhaa Akbar (2008)
Oh, why SRK, why? He reportedly rejected Jodhaa Akbar as well. It later went on to Hrithik Roshan, as we all know. Not many know that Ashutosh Gowariker wanted SRK to play the lead in Jodhaa Akbar after the failure of his film Swades. Some even say that SRK wasn’t too happy about the film’s shooting locations as it wouldn’t allow him to spend time with his kids during their vacation.
