Filmmaker Mansoor Khan reveals why Kajol was dead against playing SRK’s sister

It was Kajol instead and the actor had quite the firm ‘no’ as a response when she was offered the role. Why you ask? It’s because SRK and Kajol were at the peak of their on-screen romance runtime. Playing sister to him then, would have definitely shocked audience sensibilities at the time, and Kajol sensed it. Mansoor recalled, “I narrated the script to Kajol because I wanted her to play the sister, after DDLJ, Baazigar, Karan Arjun and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. This is the ultimate sacrilege. After she heard the story idea, she got up to go out of my house. I asked her if she will do the film. She said no. She also wanted to play Max because it was such a charismatic character”.

So how did Aishwarya come into the mix? Mansoor explained, “Then, I realised that maybe nobody will want to play Max’s sister, but thankfully Aishwarya agreed to do the film. She was thoroughly professional. I feel that Josh was her best film”.

Now while SRK as Max definitely led the film, in terms of plot, Max and Shirley were as important as each other in Mansoor’s eyes: “My thought was that both characters are equally important. I could have taken Shah Rukh for Max or a struggling actress, not Aishwarya Rai or an extra, but in my mind, they are parallel in their importance in the script”.

Josh is currently available for streaming on OTT.