Sunny Deol and Ameesha Patel were NOT the first choice for 'Gadar'

Gadar: Ek Prem Katha's iconic pair, Sunny Deol and Ameesha Patel, was not the first choice for the roles of Tara Singh and Sakina.

Gadar was initially narrated to Govinda, but he got scared of the role. However, director Anil Sharma had his eyes on Sunny as Tara Singh.

While talking to Bollywood Hungama in an old interview, the director revealed: "Govinda was never signed for Gadar: Ek Prem Katha. I was directing him in Maharaja (1998). This is when I had narrated Gadar: Ek Prem Katha’s story to Govinda."

"Not like I cast him in the film. In fact, he got scared after listening to the story of Gadar: Ek Prem Katha," he shared.

Anil went on to say: "He was wondering how someone could pull off a film of this kind and scale. This was a time when there was no way of recreating Pakistan; nobody had attempted it for a major part of the film. So Sunny Deol was always the first choice."

On the other hand, the Veer director also recalled how he approached many top actresses for the role of Sakina. He did not take any names, but the names that surfaced often included Kajol, Madhuri Dixit and Aishwarya Rai, reports India Today.

The 65-year-old director added: "I don’t want to name anyone, it’s not right. The media is free to name anyone. But we approached several top actresses of the time."

"Some felt that we weren’t up to their standards, they felt Sunny Deol sahab wasn’t up to their standards; they felt they were too big for us. They felt we weren’t ‘trendy’. They didn’t even listen to the story."

Anil Sharma also mentioned: "Some actresses who heard our story felt that it was a period film, and it would involve getting dirty; those days films would be shot internationally. They used to tell us to make ‘youth-oriented’ films. They’d make some excuse or the other."

Finally, Sunny Deol and Ameesha Patel were selected as the ones who agreed to do Gadar.