Karisma Kapoor Was 1st Choice For Twinkle Khanna's Role In SRK's Baadshah Says Producer: 'She Couldn't...'

Shah Rukh Khan and Twinkle Khanna starrer Baadshah clocked 25 years recently. The film fast-tracked Shah Rukh Khan’s journey to superstardom and remains one of Twinkle Khanna’s most popular screen appearances. However, producer Ratan Jain has revealed that instead of Twinkle Khanna, Karisma Kapoor was the first choice to play the lead.

In an interview with Bollywood Hungama, Ratan Jain said, “Earlier, we had considered Karisma Kapoor. She was almost finalised but then for some reason, she couldn’t come on board. Then we looked for a few options. Finally, we locked Twinkle Khanna.”

However, in a 2019 interview with the publication, Abbas-Mustan were asked if reports of Shilpa Shetty, Karisma Kapoor, Anupama Verma, Manisha Koirala being approached for the role of Seema (played by Twinkle Khanna) were true. They had said, “Even this is not true. Twinkle and Deepshikha were the only actors approached for their respective parts. Even Johny Lever, Amrish Puri, Rakhee Gulzar etc were original choices.”

The director duo had also addressed reports of Akshay Kumar being considered for Shah Rukh Khan’s role. “Not at all. Shah Rukh was always the first choice,” they had clarified. They added, “Shah Rukh provided a lot of inputs. Woh kamaal ke actor hain! Whether it’s in humour or serious scenes, he’s too good. Some of the card tricks were actually done by him, after a magician on the set taught him. No graphics or VFX were used. People still see the film and wonder how he managed to do it!”

Producer Ratan Jain also opened up about the lack of technology and said, “There was no VFX like it is now. But we did have some effects. Honestly, in some scenes, we were not very happy with the effects. But we had to compromise. If there was VFX in those times, we could have done a lot more.”

Baadshah featured Shah Rukh Khan as a detective, with gadgets and technology like shoes which allowed him to climb walls. The film remains one of Shah Rukh Khan’s most popular works. However, when the film was first released, it did not perform well at the box office; but the film managed to amass a cult following much later.