{"id":370873,"date":"2026-03-29T05:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T05:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/370873\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T05:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T05:00:10","slug":"saiyaara-did-you-know-mohit-suri-did-not-like-ahaan-panday-for-saiyaara-director-reveals-he-actually-rejected-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/370873\/","title":{"rendered":"Saiyaara: Did you know Mohit Suri did not like Ahaan Panday for \u2018Saiyaara\u2019? Director reveals he actually ‘rejected him\u2019 |"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DidDirector Mohit Suri initially rejected Ahaan Panday for ‘Saiyaara’, finding him too soft. However, after a candid conversation where Suri revealed the rejection, Panday’s true persona emerged, impressing the director. Suri also shared a long-standing family connection with Panday, knowing his father before Ahaan was born. Mohit Suri<\/a>\u2019s work on \u2018Saiyaara\u2019 has been heavily praised by many. It was an instant hit, and debut stars Ahaan Pandey and Aneet Padda<\/a> quickly rose to fame after their work on the film. In a recent interview, Suri delved into \u2018Saiyaara\u2019 success and even opened up about the bond and history he shares with Panday. Along with that, he revealed a surprising detail about the film, sharing that Ahaan was almost not cast for the film.<\/p>\n

Mohit Suri on his first expression of Ahaan Panday<\/p>\n

The famed director, while talking to Variety India, revealed that at first, he was not sure about Panday\u2019s casting and had even rejected the artist. Describing his first expression of Ahaan, he revealed that Aditya Chopra had pitched him and had told him to meet Ahaan in his office, which was also essentially his \u201cpad\u201d where he wrote and relaxed. <\/p>\n

Watch<\/p>\n

Anurag Kashyap reveals Mohit Suri waited 7 YEARS for ‘Saiyaara’ despite repeated rejections Suri commented, \u201cHe comes there, and I didn\u2019t find him like Krish Kapoor at all. I found him to be a sweet, really soft boy. So I told Adi sir, \u2018He is not the kind of guy.\u2019 And we did spend two or three meetings where I actually completely rejected him.\u201d Chopra further encouraged him to talk to Ahaan and even said that he should be honest about the rejection face-to-face. Suri said that he went to dinner with the actor, and the moment he told him that he was not being cast in the film, a veil dropped. \u201cI think that\u2019s when he stopped pretending to impress me, and we just went out like normal people. And suddenly that night, I saw him come alive. Because by the end of the night, I can\u2019t talk about the details, but he was standing at the bar. And he was pretty much like Krish Kapoor,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n

Mohit Suri on his bond with Ahaan Panday<\/p>\n

Suri also revealed that he shares a deep connection with the film\u2019s lead actor, Ahaan Panday. Revealing that he knew the debut star even before his birth, Suri commented, \u201cMy father and his father were surprisingly friends when my father was probably my age, and his dad was probably his age. And that\u2019s weird, because I remember meeting his dad. He was probably not born even at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on \u2018Saiyaara\u2019<\/p>\n

The 2025 Indian language film was one of Mohit Suri\u2019s biggest hits. Actors Aneet Padda and Ahaan Pandey debuted in the film world with this movie. The story revolved around a girl who has been diagnosed with early onset of a memory-related ailment, and a struggling musician who unexpectedly crosses paths. One thing leads to another, and the two create a deep bond. The film, as per Sacnilk, amassed around Rs 579 crore at the box office, while the budget for the film was around Rs 35 crore to 50 crore, making it a massive box office hit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Director Mohit Suri initially rejected Ahaan Panday for ‘Saiyaara’, finding him too soft. However, after a candid conversation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[719,19424,93,17952,61,60,721,270,723],"class_list":{"0":"post-370873","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-ahaan-panday","9":"tag-box-office-success","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-film-industry","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-mohit-suri","15":"tag-movies","16":"tag-saiyaara"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}