If you thought Karan Johar pulled off the biggest casting coup by bringing Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan and Amitabh Bachchan together in Kabhi Khush Kabhi Gham, by bringing in superstars of three generations – the present, the future and the past- then you are mistaken. Back in 2003, the showman, Subhash Ghai was planning what might have ended up being the biggest Hindi film of all time. The filmmaker was all set to roll with a film titled Motherland with the Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan and Dilip Kumar.
Subhash Ghai had locked the script and got all actors on board. Even the music was locked and he was in advanced talks with three actresses to play the female lead, Aishwarya Rai, Priety Zinta and Mahima Chaudhary. The film was set against the backdrop of War with the three all stalwarts teaming up for the first time on a feature film, however, just a couple of months before taking the film on floors, SRK backed out and that resulted in the project being put on back burner. According to a source, Shah Rukh was at the peak of his career in the 2000s and was not too keen on doing a multi-starrer at that point of time.
This is not the first time that a Shah Rukh Khan – Subhash Ghai collaboration was shelved, In 1996, before Pardes, the two were supposed to collaborate on a love story set against the backdrop of War titled Shikhar. It was to co-star Jackie Shroff with music by AR Rahman. Interestingly, the song, “Ishq Bina Kya Jeena Yaaro” was originally composed for Shikar, but since, the film was shelved, the duo of Subhash Ghai and AR Rahman used it instead in Taal.
Well, the only time we got to see the three legends – Dilip Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan – together is on a magazine cover. How we wish, Motherland had materialised.
