{"id":89754,"date":"2025-10-20T09:53:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T09:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/89754\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T09:53:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T09:53:09","slug":"why-saif-ali-khan-said-no-how-tom-cruise-almost-beat-srk-to-raj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/89754\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Saif Ali Khan said no, how Tom Cruise almost beat SRK to Raj"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>DYK: Tom Cruise was also in the running?<\/p>\n<p>The filmmakers also reportedly flirted with the idea of an Indo-American twist. In her book Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge: The Making of a Blockbuster, film critic Anupama Chopra reveals a surprising behind-the-scenes fact: director Aditya Chopra originally envisioned DDLJ as a cross-cultural romance between an American boy and an Indian girl \u2014 which is why he reportedly had Tom Cruise in mind for the lead role.<\/p>\n<p>But Yash Chopra had other ideas. The filmmaker asked his son to rework the story, turning the protagonists into non-resident Indians instead, setting the stage for the iconic Raj and Simran we know today.<\/p>\n<p>Kajol, who played Simran, confirmed the revelation in an interview with Midday: &#8220;He did want Tom Cruise in the film initially. It was on his wishlist. Every director has a wishlist where you put up actors whom you want and then after that, you come back to earth, &#8216;Acha theek hai, normal apne desh ke hero ko lete hain.&#8217; (Let&#8217;s cast an actor of our country).&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Lakshana is an entertainment and lifestyle journalist with over a decade of experience. She covers a wide range of stories\u2014from community and health to mental health and inspiring people features. <\/p>\n<p>A passionate K-pop enthusiast, she also enjoys exploring the cultural impact of music and fandoms through her writing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DYK: Tom Cruise was also in the running? The filmmakers also reportedly flirted with the idea of an&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[156,409,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-89754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}