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15 Years of Billu: Did you know Shah Rukh Khan - Irrfan Khan starrer has a special Rajinikanth connection?
Billu starring Shah Rukh Khan, Irrfan Khan and Lara Dutta has completed 15 years. Read on the article to know about the film's special connection with Thalaiva Rajinikanth.
Shah Rukh Khan, Irrfan Khan, and Lara Dutta starrer Billu is memorable for its hit songs and excellent performances of the star cast. The songs like Marjaani and Love Mera Hit Hit still make us groove without fail. The Priyadarshan directorial released in cinemas on Feb 13, 2009, and has now completed 15 years. But do you know, the film has a special Rajinikanth connection?
Billu's special Rajinikanth connection
Billu was a remake of the 2007 Malayalam film Katha Parayumpol starring Sreenivasan Meena and Mammooty in lead roles. The film was later remade in Tamil also with the title Kuselan starring Rajinikanth and Pasupathy. Interestingly, the release date of Kuselan and Billu didn't have much gap and the makers further decided to dub the Tamil film in Hindi to release it in the Hindi market.
When Shah Rukh Khan came to know about this, he felt worried because if Kuselan's Hindi version released first then Billu would've lost its novelty factor. King Khan who had also produced Billu called Rajinikanth and requested to postpone the Hindi dub release of Kuselan, and Thalaiva happily accepted the request. 
A source told India Forums at that time, "While SRK was confident that he would be able to wrap up his film before Rajnikanth's Tamil version he was in for a not so pleasant surprise when he came to know that the Rajni film is not only over but is due for a release in August and that too with its Hindi dubbed version. SRK had already planned a grand Diwali release for his film. But now with the Rajni film coming up much before Diwali he was in for a shock. He then used all his good relations with Rajni (they had met last in Delhi for a news channel's award show) and called him up requesting him to postpone the release of his Hindi version. Rajni obliged and now the film shall only release in Tamil and Telugu all over the world. The Hindi dubbed version will definitely release too but post Diwali."
Later, we all know how Shah Rukh Khan along with Rohit Shetty and Yo Yo Honey Singh gave an epic tribute to Rajinikanth with the song Lungi Dance in the 2013 film Chennai Express.
More about Billu
Billu was a special film for so many reasons. It was the first film to have Shah Rukh Khan and Irrfan Khan sharing screen space. SRK had chartbuster dance numbers with not just one or two but three top heroines. The song Marjaani featured Kareena Kapoor Khan along with the superstar, Love Mera Hit Hit had him shaking a leg with Deepika Padukone and You Get Me Rocking & Reeling set the screens on fire by presenting his sizzling chemistry with Priyanka Chopra.
Apart from Shah Rukh Khan, Irrfan Khan, and Lara Dutta and the special appearances of Kareena, Deepika, and Priyanka, the film also had talented actors like Om Puri, Rajpal Yadav, Asrani and Manoj Joshi in important roles.
When the title of the film was changed
The film was originally titled Billu Barber but after the salon and beauty parlor associations of Bandra raised objections against the word Barber and termed it derogatory, the makers decided to drop the word from the title. Later, the members of The Hairdressers Association of Mumbai were also invited to the premiere of the film.
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