In a conversation with Bollywood Hungama, director Anil Sharma spoke about the casting choices for the original 2001 film ‘Gadar: Ek Prem Katha’. Rumors began circulating that Govinda was considered to play the lead role that eventually went to Sunny Deol. Now, the director has clarified that although the ‘Partner’ actor was not considered for the role, he himself wasn’t interested in the project because the film revolved around Hindu-Muslim conflict:
“Govinda wasn’t a choice for Gadar: Ek Prem Katha. I had done a film called Maharaja with him. One day, I was just narrating the story of Gadar to him and he told me, ‘I can’t do this film.’ He thought that I was narrating the film to him because I wanted to cast him.”
“Before narrating the story, I had told him that I have narrated this story to Sunny Deol and I am doing this film with him. Then he asked me, ‘What is the story?’ So then I narrated Gadar’s story to him and he told me, ‘No, I can’t do this film because it has so much Hindu-Muslim conflict.’”
The director revealed Govinda wasn’t his first choice as the lead role of the movie because he had already set his mind on casting a Punjabi hero like Sunny Deol:
“That was the small conversation we had about Gadar. Perhaps this misconception remained in his mind that I was offering him the film. But he wasn’t a bad choice, he was the superstar of that time but in my mind, I wanted a Punjabi hero and that could only be Sunny Deol.”
