During the trailer launch of Zero, Shah Rukh Khan said that Salman Khan called him and suggested that he do Zero. He had said, “It's not true that he (Aanand L Rai) asked a lot of people... Salman had actually called me and said, ‘There’s this film, do it’”.
When The Quint got a chance to chat with the filmmaker Aanand L Rai, he told us he did pitch the film to Salman but after the script was developed, he never went back to him. He said he had this idea after Raanjhanaa.
I got an opportunity to meet Salman bhai and I pitched the idea that there is a story like this and he said, ‘very nice when you develop the script just tell me.’
But after the script developed he never went back to Salman Khan.
No, I never went to Salman for a reason, that I knew that this story has taken a different route altogether. But I am happy to have Salman bhai in the film in a cameo. It is brilliant to see both of them together, it’s fun.Aanand L Rai, Filmmaker
By the time he finished the story, he felt this was made for somebody like Shah Rukh Khan because it had a very strong love story and more than a love story, it had a character romancing with life, which he thought was SRK’s forte.
But when asked about why he chose such a superstar to play the role of Bauua, a vertically challenged man, the filmmaker sounded very confident about his choice.
I needed somebody big enough, and secure enough. Because what I wanted to show was that, even if I take away those two feet from you, nothing changes in you. For that, I needed an actor who is very sure about what he has done in life. I never wanted any kind of insecurity in the head and Shah Rukh has always been a gutsy actor. So that was my need.Aanand L Rai, Filmmaker
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