Priyadarshan’s Kyon Ki ruined the novelty of the Salman Khan-Kareena Kapoor pair which Sanjay Leela Bhansali had pencilled in for his ambitious Bajirao Mastani after Aishwarya Rai opted out.
This writer still remembers the photoshoot at SLB’s residence when Kareena and Salman dazzled as Bajirao and Mastani. I can assuredly say they made a much better pair than Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone.
Then something happened. Something utterly unethical. Salman Khan rang up filmmaker Priyadarshan and offered the Salman-Kareena pair in a laughably stilted remake of Milos Foreman’s all-time classic One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.
Don’t laugh. But Salman played Jack Nicholson while Kareena played a considerably softened version of Louise Fletcher. If Milos Foreman had grown up making Telugu films he would probably have done Kyon Ki. Very often Priyadarshan pulled out all stops to deliver monstrously exaggerated blows in the storytelling.
Kyon Ki was a bomb and it wiped out the prestigious Bajirao Mastani project as far as the Salman-Kareena casting is concerned.
To this day Bhansali has no clue as to why Salman did what he did. Was it just a prankish attempt to pre-empt the big event? Or was there more to the unsavoury move than meets the eye?
To go back to the history of Bajirao Mastani… It was originally to be made with Salman and Aishwarya Rai in the lead. But then Aishwarya decided she wouldn’t work with Salman anymore. Salman was keen that Bhansali cast Katrina as Mastani. But, Bhansali politely but firmly refused. The project then went to Salman and Kareena.
Some say, Salman’s Kyun Ki move was in retaliation to Bhansali’s refusal to sign Katrina for Mastani.
