Filmmaker Ayan Mukerji revealed Ranbir Kapoor was not his initial choice for the iconic film Wake Up Sid which marked 14 years today. During an old interview with Film Companion, the filmmaker spoke about the film’s casting.
He said, “Karan was early in his producer years. ‘Let’s find the actor’, he said. This was March, 2008 and Saawariya was released in 2007. Now, I had seen the film and loved Ranbir in it. And at the same time, it so happened that I am very good friends with Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao, and I had seen a rough cut of Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na. I really felt the film was a winner. At the same time, I mentioned it to Karan. I said Imran has a lot of potential and is extremely handsome. So Karan said he was gonna take a meeting.”
Further, he added, “Karan met and really liked Imran, and he offered him Wake Up Sid, which he had the right to do, since he was a producer.” He continued, “I really really liked Imran, but after the screening of Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, I felt that the part I had written, he wasn’t really right for it. I can’t explain that instinct, it is a gut.”