Although she previously kept mum about her declining director Karan Johar’s 1998 movie, “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai”, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan recently opened up about the old story to reveal the reason for her decision.
In an interview with Filmfare recently, Aishwarya stated that she was in a catch-22 situation when the offer came to her to play Tina Malhotra – the character whose letters to her daughter following her death started the whole story of the said movie. It is noted that Aishwarya herself had only been in two movies when she was approached for KKHH, having debuted in the Tamil movie, “Iruvar” and starring in the Hindi movie, “Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya” following her modelling career and victory at the Miss World 1994 pageant.
“If I’d done the film, it would have been tittered that, ‘Look, Aishwarya Rai is back to doing what she did in her modelling days—leaving her hair straight, wearing minis, and pouting glamorously into the camera.’ Ultimately, the hero goes back to the more real person. I know if I’d done Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, I would have been lynched,” she said.
It is noted that Tina’s character was described as an elegant and sophisticated Indian woman who – despite her Western education and overall style, still stays true to her cultural roots.
Karan Johar originally wrote the character for Twinkle Khanna, but later approached several other actresses to play the role after being turned down by the former. The role later went to Rani Mukherjee, who at the time only had three movies under her belt.
The filmmaker, however, did reveal that Aishwarya was the only one who made the polite gesture of calling him back after declining the role. They later collaborated on the movie “Ae Dil Hai Mushkil” in 2016.
