The 90s marked the launch of many star kids in the Hindi film industry. These youngsters added the much needed freshness to our films, which was eventually highly dominated by the young Khans. Film lovers were highly excited to see children of their favourite actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Jeetendra, Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Randhir Kapoor and Rakesh Roshan.
Rakesh Roshan, as an actor had a short career span but went on to become a big producer director with the help of super hit films like Khudgarz, Khoon Bhari Maang, Kishen Kanhaiya and Karan Arjun. Karan Arjun went on to become one of his biggest hits, which ran successfully for more than 75 weeks, due to which his next film Koyla failed to match up to the expectation. It was at that time Rakesh decided to launch his son Hrithik Roshan in a grand love story. Rakesh was all set to work on Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai with his son while speculations were rife that Kareena Kapoor would debut as the female lead.
Film buffs wanted to see the granddaughter of Raj Kapoor, daughter of Randhir Kapoor & Babita and sister of superstar Karisma Kapoor on the silver screen. Thus, Rakesh decided to approach Babita, who had been keen on launching her younger daughter. Babita instantly agreed as she thought this movie would be an ideal launch vehicle for her daughter. Rakesh too, was happy as ‘K’ was a lucky letter for him.
After a quiet mahurat, Rakesh began shooting the first schedule at Convent Villa, Versova in Mumbai. Kareena’s first day of shoot was for a song and she was accompanied by her elder sister Karisma and mother Babita for moral support. The choreographer started the day with simple steps as it was the first time Kareena was facing the camera. After rehearsals, Rakesh managed to shoot some of Kareena’s moves before the day ended. The next day, Rakesh received a call from Babita suggesting that it would be great if they shot the scenes first and then the song as Kareena is more comfortable with acting than dancing at this stage. Rakesh was in a shock as the entire set was erected and cancelling the song’s shoot could lead to a huge loss. He assured Babita that Kareena was good and she shall continue with the song shoot. Babita was adamant and kept insisting that they shoot the scenes first. After a heated argument, Babita ended the call by saying that they would prefer to opt out of the film. Rakesh failed to believe what he heard and kept approaching Babita with the help of his best friend Randhir Kapoor, but all his efforts went in vain. The shooting of Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai stood still as there was no heroine for this film.
This news spread like wild fire in newspapers and film magazines. Babita and Karisma refused to comment on it. Though there were unofficial comments and stories from Babita stating that Rakesh Roshan was unprofessional, it was Rakesh who finally opened up to film magazines. Rakesh confirmed that Kareena was no more a part of Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai and it was he who decided to drop her and not the other way round. He failed to give the exact reason for this fall out as Kareena was the daughter of his best friend, Randhir Kapoor. He blamed Babita for the interference in her daughter’s career by saying that she is harming her more than helping her. He had said, “Kareena is a newcomer and should be treated like one, she cannot call the shots just because she’s Karisma’s sister. Babita should have spoken to me like a newcomer’s mother and shouldn’t have demanded more than she owed.” Rakesh also stated that he would have agreed to Babita’s terms if Karisma would have been the heroine. He also shared that he had to suffer a huge loss due to Babita’s unprofessional behavior. Despite all this, he contacted Randhir Kapoor and told him to re-think this issue. Eventually, he gave up and signed a newcomer Ameesha Patel for his movie.
Babita however stood by her word that Bebo quit due to script reasons. In midst of these interviews and comments, came a news that Babita had taken this drastic step in expectation of a more lucrative offer, which in this case was J.P Dutta’s Aakhri Mughal. As per the media grapevine, J.P Dutta wanted to launch Kareena in his ambitious project starring Dilip Kumar, Sridevi and Abhishek Bachchan. Babita found Aakhri Mughal a more viable project as it was a grand film and was being directed by J.P Dutta who was riding high after the super success of Border. The media report turned out to be true as within a short span of time, J.P Dutta announced Aakhri Mughal starring Kareena Kapoor as one of the lead actors. However, Aakhri Mughal was shelved and J.P Dutta decided to go ahead with another film Refugee. The millennium era began with the release of Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai, which turned out to be a blockbuster hit, while Refugee failed to match up to the expectation level.
Fun Facts –
Karisma Kapoor also had issues with her debut film. She was going to be launched by Dharmendra opposite his son Bobby Deol for a film Jaan, which was to be directed by Shekhar Kapoor. The movie took time in its inception stage due to which Karisma opted out and signed D.Rama Naidu’s Prem Qaidi.
Hrithik’s debut film was a blockbuster while Kareena got her share of success with Mujhe Kuch Kehna Hai. Hrithik and Kareena were later signed by big banners like Mukta Arts, Dharma Productions, Yash Raj Films and Rajshri. None of these films (Yaadein, Mujhse Dosti Karoge and Main Prem ki Diwani Hoon) worked except for Dharma’s mega starrer film, Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham.
Hrithik and Kareena were approached after a decade for Dharma Productions Shuddhi, which eventually got shelved.
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