16 Years of Veer-Zaara: Lesser known facts about the Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta and Rani Mukerji starrer

Murtuza Iqbal

Yash Chopra’s directorial Veer-Zaara starring Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta, and Rani Mukerji completes 16 years of its release today. The movie was a blockbuster at the box office and SRK, Preity and Rani won multiple awards for their performance in the movie.

Today, as Veer-Zaara completes 16 years of its release, let’s look at some of the lesser-known facts about the movie…

Initially titled Yeh Kahaan Aa Gaye Hum

We all remember the song Yeh Kahaan Aa Gaye Hum from Yash Chopra’s directorial Silsila. It is said that Yash Chopra wanted to title the film Yeh Kahaan Aa Gaye Hum, but later decided on Veer-Zaara.

Preity Zinta was not the first choice for the film

Preity Zinta was amazing as Zaara in the movie, but she wasn’t the first choice for the role. Reportedly, Yash Chopra had offered the film to Kajol, but the actress rejected the film, and Preity got the part.

A role not written for Rani Mukerji 

Rani Mukerji’s performance as Saamiya Siddiqui is regarded as one of the best performances of her career. But, the character was written keeping Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in mind. However, she turned down the offer, and later Rani came on board.

Saamiya Siddiqui’s character was inspired by a real-life person

Rani Mukerji’s character in the film Saamiya Siddiqui was inspired by real-life Pakistan activist and lawyer Asma Jehangir.

Ajay Devgn was supposed to be a part of Veer-Zaara

Manoj Bajpayee had a cameo in the film. He played the character of Zaara’s fiancé. But not many would know that Ajay Devgn was offered that role, but he decided to not star in the film, and Bajpayee was roped in.

Prison scenes

There are many scenes in the film where we get to see SRK and Rani having conversations in a prison. It is said that those scenes were shot in just one day. Now, isn’t that amazing!