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Khamoshi turns 28: Not Manisha Koirala, Sanjay Leela Bhansali had THESE actresses in mind initially to play lead heroine
Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Khamoshi took Manisha Koirala's career to a new level, but did you know she was never the first choice for the role? Read on to know SLB's initial cast for the classic.
On the 28th anniversary of Khamoshi: The Musical, Manisha Koirala has revealed that she wasn't Sanjay Leela Bhansali's first choice to play the lead. While the actress' career changed drastically after the critical success of her performance in this romantic musical, Manisha admitted to PTI that she wasn't even in SLB's vision.
"I had done Khamoshi 28 years ago, and I was not his first choice for the role. I remember we had become friends, and he just said, 'Manisha, I have written this script, just go through it. You are not acting in it; Kajol and Madhuri are my choices,'" Manisha, SLB's long-time friend, shared with a laugh.
Interestingly, the 53-year-old thought it was a brilliant script for any actress and told the director, "Ye dono nahi mili to main hoon, haan? (If these two don't work out, I'm there)." This Sanjay Leela Bhansali directorial debut must have been written in Koirala's fate and eventually landed in her kitty.
The actress played the character of Annie Braganza in the film, who happened to be a musically inclined woman who juggles between the choice of following her passion or looking after the well-being of her deaf and mute parents (played by Nana Patekar and Seema Biswas).
Khamoshi also starred Salman Khan, Helen, Himani Shivpuri, and Raghubir Yadav in crucial roles. Though commercially a box office bomb, this Bhansali classic eventually took the place of one of the best Indian movies of all time.
Many don't know, but Manisha Koirala was also supposed to work with her friend Bhansali in his films Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Devdas, but things didn't work out. The duo reunited for the filmmaker's digital debut, Heeramandi, this year.
Away from the limelight for quite some time, Manisha, in the same interview, revealed that she was "chilling, gardening and in a different world altogether" in her hometown, Kathmandu, when she received a call for Heeramandi.
Set in the backdrop of Lahore's Heeramandi, the 8-episodic Netflix series explored India's freedom struggle with Koirala playing Mallikajaan, the matriarch. The show was a huge hit and has already been renewed for a second season.
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