Sanjay Leela Bhansali is known to make larger than life movies and leave the audience in awe with its opulence every time his directorial hits the big screen. One of such classic’s by Bhansali was his 2002 release ‘Devdas’, starring Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Madhuri Dixit in lead roles.
Indeed, with such an interesting star cast, the movie was bound to be one the most talked about movies of the year. Besides, it was the modern day remake of Dileep Kumar’s classic which escalated the expectations for this SRK starrer even more. And to every one’s surprise, ‘Devdas’ not just met all the expectations, but the par excellence performance by every actor left a mark on everyone’s heart and we can’t resist reminiscing about this cult classic.
From the grandeur sets to powerful dialogues, stunning performances and the breath-taking dance performances by Aishwarya and Madhuri, every thing spoke volumes about Bhansali’s love for perfection which was well appreciated by the film fraternity as ‘Devdas’ bagged the most number of awards that year.
So as this cult classic completes 17 years of release today, we bring you some lesser known facts about Devdas which we compel you to watch the movie once again and relive the majestic aura it once created:
Shah Rukh Khan gave one the best performances of his career when he stepped in to Dileep Kumar’s shoes and portrayed Devdas on the big screen. But little does anyone know, not SRK but Salman Khan was the first choice to play Devdas. However, he turned down the role which eventually went in to Shah Rukh’s kitty. King Khan even won the Filmfare Best Actor Award in 2002.
Remember the spell-bounding performance by Aishwaya and Madhuri in the song ‘Dola Re Dola’? Well it took over a week for Bhansali to pen down the song as he want it to be perfect because it will be uniting the two divas on the big screen.
During the shooting of the song, Aishwarya’s ears started bleeding due to heavy earrings. But Aish didn’t tell anyone until she finished the shoot.
Madhuri Dixit’s lehenga in the song ‘Kaahe Chedd Mohe’ weighed around 30 kgs which even made the actress face some difficulty during the choreography of the song. But Dixit overcome every difficulty and gave a splendid performane. The song was choreographed by Kathak master Birju Maharaj.
While we all loved Jackie Shroff in the role of Chunni Lal, he too wasn't the director's first choice. The role of Chunni Lal was first offered to Saif Ali Khan, Govinda and Manoj Bajpayee. However, after the three of them turned down the offer, Jackie was approached for it.
