Pratighaat star Sujata Mehta recalled being replaced in Jai Shiv Shankar. The film starred Rajesh Khanna and Sujata was paired opposite to him. However, she was replaced in the 1990 film with Dimple Kapadia. In a recent interview, she said that after she was replaced, she confronted Rajesh when they ran into each other on a flight.
“I met Kaka on a flight. I have been a fan since school, and I used to sport similar hairstyle, dressing sense, and spectacles like him. When I asked him about the change in the principal cast of Jai Shiv Shankar, he just said, ‘Hmmm…’” Sujata recalled. She added that she could sense Rajesh Khanna was a different man as compared to the person people know in 1970s and 1980s.
“I could see a lot of agony, depression etc… Imagine seeing the dizzying heights of success and the devastating despair of failures. His life was a mix of everything in extremes, right?” Sujata shared.
Speaking about the replacement, Sujata shared, “I was cast in the role of Dimple. I’m not sure if we signed on the dotted line or if it was just a verbal agreement. But then, I came to know that I was replaced by Dimple.” She was also told the real reason while being replaced. “I was told that the daughters of the now-estranged couple wanted to reunite the parents,” she said.
Besides Sujata, the film also was to star actors such as Vinod Khanna, Jackie Shroff and Mithun Chakraborty. However, due to production delay, the film ended up with Rajesh Khanna as the lead. It was few of Rajesh Khanan’s last films before he began taking prolonged breaks between movies. His prominent films in the 1990s included Sautela Bhai and Aa Ab Laut Chalen. He did films such as Kyaa Dil Ne Kahaa and Wafa: A Deadly Love Story in the 2000s but they failed to work their charm at the box office.
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