Directed by Shimit Amit and produced by Aditya Chopra under his banner Yash Raj Films, Chak De India is often regarded as the best sports film made in Bollywood, along with Lagaan. Shah Rukh Khan's portrayal of the coach Kabir Khan is also considered among the actor's best performances in his career.
But do you know that Shah Rukh Khan was not Aditya Chopra's first choice for the film and the producer had first offered Chak De India to Salman Khan? The Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan actor revealed why he rejected the film when he was promoting his 2016 sports drama Sultan.
During the promotions of the Ali Abbas Zafar film 8 years ago, Salman said, "This was the first good sports film that came to me." When he was reminded that he was offered Chak De India too, he first joked and said, "I left it because even Shah Rukh Khan should be a part of a few great films."
He then explained seriously, "When I was offered Chak De, my image was totally different as I was doing Partner and all those kind of films. My only thing in Chak De was that my fans would expect me to wear a wig and win the match for India which would not go for the film. That was not my genre at that point of time. It was more serious kind of film and I was doing more of a commercial kind of cinema which I am still doing. I would never move out of commercial cinema zone but it is just that there would be a lot of meaningful cinema in the commercial zone."
Apart from Shah Rukh Khan, the other stars in Chak De India were the amazing girls who formed the Indian women's national field hockey team. These included Vidya Malvade, Shilpa Shukla, Sagarika Ghatge, Chitrashi Rawat, Tanya Abrol, Shubhi Mehta, and Anaitha Nair among others. The Shimit Amin directorial won the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment and has now become a cult classic.
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