'Sarfarosh' makers actually asked director John Matthew Matthan to cast SRK instead of Aamir Khan for the movie as it would save them money

Makers of 'Sarfarosh' had asked the film's director to cast Shah Rukh Khan instead of Aamir Khan to save costs.

Bollywood's hit film 'Sarfarosh' became a cult after its release in 1999. The film, which was chocolate boy Aamir Khan's first action, had him play the role of an IPS officer, Ajay Singh Rathore.

As the movie 'Sarfarosh' completed 25 years yesterday, April 30, the film's director John Matthew Matthan recalled the time when he was asked by the producers to cast Shah Rukh Khan instead of Aamir Khan for the role of ACP Rathore.

In an interview with The Indian Express, John revealed how he decided to cast Aamir Khan as ACP Rathore.

He said, “I was staying at a small guest house in Delhi. On television there, I saw a small scene from one of Aamir’s films (Dil, 1990) where his character was going to rape Madhuri Dixit’s character. And I felt that this guy looks honest; he is not going to rape this girl, and that this was just an act. But I felt he suited the role. He was not a big star back then, actually. So when I came back to Mumbai and started work on 'Sarfarosh' with Aamir in my mind,” he recalled.

He further went on to say that the producers wanted to work with Shah Rukh Khan at that time, as it would have saved them money. But John said he told them he only wanted to work with Aamir because he fit the role perfectly.

“I met my friend Manmohan Shetty, who owned Adlabs, and told him that I wanted to make a film. Around this time, Shetty had started Entertainment One to produce feature films. He had funded two films by my friends, both of which starred Shah Rukh Khan. One was Vikram Mehrotra’s ‘Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa’, directed by Kundan Shah, and the other was Praveen Nischol’s ‘English Babu Desi Mem’. So at that time, all of them suggested I take Shah Rukh. I said, ‘Listen, I don’t think Shah Rukh suits my role. I don’t have him in mind,’ but they said that we would be able to save more money as the three of us could get a deal, but I didn’t want to,” he recalled.

John said he met Aamir, and after reading the script, he said yes immediately. John said after Sarfarosh's success at box office, Aamir Khan, "He realised that he needs to do films that have original stories. So he then did ‘Lagaan’. There was a visible shift in his attitude after 'Sarfarosh'. Post-film, he’s been doing movies that are ‘different’ from routine potboilers, and that’s the reason he has stayed relevant all these years."

‘Sarfarosh’ directed by John Mathew Matthan was released on April 30, 1999. Besides Aamir Khan, the film also had Naseeruddin Shah and Sonali Bendre in crucial roles.