When Shah Rukh Khan refused to share screen space with Amitabh Bachchan and Dilip Kumar

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan has always managed to win hearts with his charm. So, when he shares screen space with any other big star, the movie becomes epic. Remember Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham?

As much as fans love to watch SRK with big actors on the silver screens, filmmakers also wish to star them together in their movies. Ace director Subhash Ghai had a dream project, in which he wanted SRK, Amitabh Bachchan and Dilip Kumar in the lead roles.

His ambitious war film was supposed to pan out in 2003, but Shah Rukh did not like the idea. He didn't want to share screen space with these veteran actors and wanted a solo hero film.

"In 2003, I wanted to start a war film called Mother Land, where I had cast Dilip Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan. The script was ready and three songs were also recorded, but at the last minute Shah Rukh backed out," Ghai told the Press Trust of India.

The filmmaker has previously worked with Shah Rukh in the 1997 hit film Pardes and wanted to work with him in his dream project. 

"He (Shah Rukh) felt there are so many characters in the film. He wanted to do a solo hero film then, but mine was not. It was a story of Dilip saab, Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh. On my wish list were also Aishwarya Rai, Priety Zinta and Mahima Chaudhry for the film but that's destiny," he said.

So, Mother Land did not take off but there was another film, called Shikhar, that Ghai had planned to make with Shah Rukh. But that also didn't work out.

When Shikhar got shelved Ghai thought he would make a small film and it gave birth to Pardes.

"My team thought, since Shikhar was a very big war film with huge investment, let's make a small budget film. I thought let's make a small film, which happened to be Pardes, shoot within a year and come back to Sikhar later," Ghai told PTI.