It is a known fact that there was a time when Jolly LLB was supposed to be made with Shah Rukh Khan in the title role. In fact filmmaker Subhash Kapoor had taken the film to the superstar as well a few years back and he was more than impressed with the script as well. However due to his busy schedule and lack of dates availability, Kapoor had to hunt for another actor and this is where Arshad Warsi stepped in.
What is not known is that Kapoor’s first choice was actually no one else, but Arshad Warsi himself.
“Kapoor always had Arshad in mind for the film and was very keen that the actor does it,” informs a source, “He wanted to reach out to Arshad through his secretary but that didn’t really work out since he was a newcomer director back then. No one was really sure of how he would present the film and the actor, due to which there couldn’t be any further progress on that.”
Meanwhile Kapoor started making headway as far as Shah Rukh Khan was concerned and the news started spreading in the industry that the duo could be coming together for the film. Once Shah Rukh Khan too said that he had loved the script, the entire perception factor about Kapoor changed. The filmmaker, who has also seen some good appreciation coming his way for Phas Gaye Re Obama, met with Arshad again and the deal was on.
“Such things happen in the industry”, smiles Arshad, “It was a matter of us coming together face to face. I work on a gut feel and instantly know what is good or bad. I can read the story and make out whether it would work or not. Once I heard the script, I told Kapoor that this was a damn good script and I was doing it.”
Perhaps it was destined!
Joginder Tuteja tweets @tutejajoginder