Sooraj Barjatya on taking Shahid Kapoor not Salman Khan in Vivah: "Needed someone young, innocent"

Sooraj Barjatya has said that even Salman Khan wanted to work with him when he was about to be filming Vivah but the filmmaker went ahead with Shahid Kapoor. Barjatya said that the story of Vivah was given to him by his father and he didn't want to compromise on it. Fresh out of the failure of Main Prem Ki Deewani Hoon, Barjatya said he could have easily taken Salman Khan on board for Vivah but didn't.

Sooraj Barjatya said that Salman himself called him and told him that they should work together on something but he didn't have a story for Khan back then.

"After Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon flopped, Salman called and said 'Let's work on something'. But at that time, I didn't have a story for Salman and this (Vivah) was a story that my father had given me," he told Digital commentary.

The Prem Ratan Dhan Paayo filmmaker further said that he couldn't take Salman in Vivah because the character wanted someone younger, someone who had an innocence.

Sooraj Barjatya on not taking Salman

"When I decided I wanted to make this, I knew Salman wouldn't fit here because he was a major star... Isme bholapan chahiye, umar chahiye aur umar toh kisiki rukegi nahi. Toh fir yeh Shahid aur Amrita ki casting hui (This needed innocence and age, and age doesn't stop for anyone. That's how I cast Shahid and Amrita)," he further said.

Shahid Kapoor, in another interview, had revealed that he went up to Barjatya asking him to replace him with another hero. Shahid had given back-to-back flops back then and he just didn't want the film to suffer the same fate. But the filmmaker stood by his conviction and told him to act like he does, and the rest he would look after.

Vivah turned out to be one of the biggest blockbusters of Shahid Kapoor and Amrita Rao's careers.