Crawley's Casting Calls

Loading...

Aamir Khan

Posted on 6 November 2023by Tony CrawleyCategories:Actors

Sharad S Kapoor, Josh, India, 2000. Director Mansoor Khan offered his cousin the role of Prakash. Aamir, one of four Khans ruling 90s’ Indian cinema (Aamir, Saif Ali, Salman, Shahrukh), refused in a typically Bollywood huff over Shahrukh Khan having a bigger role
Anil Kapoor. Nayak: The Real Hero, India. 2001. Turned down the chance of running the country – as happens to the TV reporter in the action drama.
Saif Ali Khan, Dil Chahta Hai, India, 2001. Having lost both Abhishek Bachchan and Hrithik Roshan for the role of Siddarthe, Mumbai director Farhan Akhtar promptly switched the roles originally pencilled in for Aamir and Saif. The saga of three friends was attacked by Indian critics for being too Western – yet still won seven Filmfare awards, including one for Saif.
Hrithik Roshan, Lakshya, India, 2004. In order to make The Rising: Ballad of Mangal Pandey, Aamir (once the highest paid Indian star) passed the lead to the newest, hottest superstar (and thereby, Indo-Mafia target), the three-thumbed Brad Pitt-Sylvester Stallone mix.
Saif Ali Khan, Hum Tum, India, 2004. Khan, plus Vivek Oberoi Khan and Hrithik Roshan were also sought for Karan – the Bollywood version of Harry… meeting Sally…
Salman Khan, London Dreams, India, 2008. A decade earlier, director Rajkumar Santoshi planned the film with a different cast and title: Rashque.
Rajnkanth, Endhiran/The Robot/Robo, India, 2010. Dream project of director S Shankar since 2001 when Kamal Hassan was set for the double role of scientist Dr Vasigaran and his creation, the robot, Chitthi, which falls in love with co-star Aishwarya Rai. Next: Aamir Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Ajith Kumar came – and went. Finally, Shankar made it as not just Tollywood’s but India’s priciest movie, $35m, with costumes, stunts, SFX by the Batman, Matrix, Jurassic Park teams, locations in Austria, Brazil, Peru, USA! And starring, at age 60, the bus conductor turned moustachioed megastar of 150 action movies. Rajnkanth is quite literally worshipped by fans of the Kannada, Malayalam, Ytamil, Telugu, language movies of South Indian cinema – India’s largest.

Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 7

WELCOME

to the films the stars did not make. The movies that never were. The most definitive collation of casting stories. Check up on all the films - of yesterday, today and tomorrow - that your favourite stars never made... A cast of thousands - 8,063 actors - to click on... More than 40 years in the making! And 2,777,633 words of spirited text.
The ultimate in movie trivia ... Better! Exactly the kind of history that Hollywood deserves. Back to front. Upside-down. Inside out. Full of flashbacks, close-ups, tracking shots (and, alas some badly edited sequences - sorry about that!) forming a fascinating, new and often bizarre flip-side perspective on your treasured movies and stars

HE SAID

“They’re doing stuff, but not with me. I’m not doing any more.” – Adam Driver on no more Kylo Ren/Ben Solo ... Or is it that there will be no more Star Wars?

“I’ve been acting for 42 years and then you make one cocktail…” – Stanley Tucci on his new fame as a TV food and cookery expert.

"The point is it's very hard work and you have to really want to do it. It has to be something that you're burning to say." – Martin Scorsese on directing at 80 and thinking “possibly only one more”.

“Whether you are a competent actor, or an artist, is incidental. The main business is: you’re product. I had a hard time steadying myself against that stuff.” – Robert Redford.

“I’ve never done the same thing twice and how many people can say that?” – Tom Hanks… forgetting his two successive Oscars.

“I was so excited when I got the script for Silent Night. There’s no dialogue in the entire movie! I thought this would be very good for me because it lets me use my gifts for telling a story visually. – John Woo on his Hollywood comeback at 77.

“I’ve gotta be nice about Marvel movies, because I named myself after a Stan Lee character named Luke Cage. What am I going to do, put Marvel movies down? Stan Lee is my surrealistic father.” – Nic Cage.

“The man who invented mornings was no Christian.” – Peter O’Toole.

“The moustache did the acting.” – Anthony Hopkins on Howards End.

“It’s very difficult to get 100 million people to watch anything,” – writer-director Joe Russo.

“I gave him a little part in Looper, where he got to be shot in the face by Bruce Willis. He was just so overjoyed… like a little kid.” – director Rian Johnson on his father.

“I'm not an actor - and I've got 64 films to prove it!” – Victor Mature.

“If you cast it right, you don’t have to tell the actors what to do.” – John Huston.

CCC CLIPS

>> Name Game. James Spader really started something with his Blacklist series. He played – remember? – Reddington. And now we have Austin Butler and, Emma Stone are in making Eddington… and newbie Glenn Powell is Huntingdon, his tenth gig since Top Gun: Maverick. Perhaps it’s time to re-issue Carrington… with, among others, Steven Waddington!

>> Christopher Nolan says “No, sadly no – no truth to those rumours.” About making the next Bond. So, no Cillian Murphy as Jimbo, then?

>> Rolling Stone. Those Poor Things, Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe, are – naturally – in the next release of their Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos. It’s Emma’s third Yorgos collaboration. Most likely she’ll be in his next one, too, a re-make of the South Korean hit, Save the Green Planet. That was a comedy. But one can never categorise a Lanthimos experience. After all this one was first titled… And.

>> Taylor Swift’s guy, US football superstar Travis Kelce, is making moves on movies. To be as famous as Dwayne Johnson. Although people are now beginning to ask: Dwyane Whosis?

>>Brandon Routh was Superman back in the day. Today he’s in…Ick.

>> A star sure was born! Lady Gaga now getting $10million for Joker 2…

>> Sean Ono Lennon says Emma Stone should play his dad. Now there’s a thought. After all, Cate Blanchett played Bob Dylan…

>> Sly Stallone has come this far without bothering with serial killers but that’s what he’s chasing in The Epiphany. He plays a retiring cop - what else at 78?

>> Thirty years after the first, Neve Campbell returns in Scream 7. She refused #6 over a money row…

>> Beatles director Sam Mendes made Skyfall and Spectre and another actor who has played John Lennon, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, might yet be the next 007…

>> Ryan Gosling tipped to be join the Marvelverse. (They need him more than he them). Henry Cavill may follow – so definitely no Bond then. Not after Argylle. If anyone witnessed that accident, could they call the appropriate authorities.

>> Will Smith comes back (or so he hopes) in an almost suicide squad blasting drug dealers in Sugar Bandits… while Colin Farrell settles for just Sugar – back to his usual smoothie looks after The Penguin…

>> White Lotus 3 resurrects Parker Posey, Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Charlotte Le Bon, Scott Glenn and introduces Patrick Schwarzenegger. But which one is going to flash…something?

Back to top