Farah says Shah Rukh Khan played ‘mar mar ke’ a college boy in ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ and that’s why she did reverse engineering for ‘Main Hoon Na’

Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol and Rani Mukerji starrer ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ is one of the most iconic films of Hindi cinema. Though it still has a cult following, 25 years later after its release, SRK had his own concerns about playing a college boy in the film as he was 30 years old at the time. SRK’s close friend Farah Khan, who made ‘Main Hoon Na’ with him, reveals how she shaped the script of her debut film accordingly.

While speaking to Radio Nasha, Farah said: “After Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, I just wanted to make a young film. Shah Rukh ne mar mar ke Kuch Kuch Hota Hai kiya, he used to say I’m too old to play this college boy and he was 30 at the time! So I reverse engineered Main Hoon Na. I just wanted to do a college film with Shah Rukh. But why does Shah Rukh go to college, so the whole thing worked backwards. That if he has to go to college, he will go undercover.”

The choreographer-turned-director revealed that ‘Main Hoon Na’ was initially a small film in which SRK made his breakthrough only in college. But later, only the India-Pakistan part, Project Milap and Raghavan’s character (played by Suniel Shetty) were added and the film became big.

Farah revealed that it was the highest budget film of the year, which wouldn’t have been possible if SRK had backed the project as a producer. She remembers how he came on board, saying, “So he asked me to narrate the script during that three-hour drive. So I did – I narrated from my handwritten script – and when we arrived, he said he would produce the film and he would be in it too! But the shooting started after three years! But it’s okay, there are things worth waiting for.”