Ayan Mukerji’s 2013 film Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani remains a pivotal addition to Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone’s filmographies. The film established them as stars, and even after 12 years of its release, it continues to hold a significant place in the cultural conversation around mainstream Bollywood. In a recent interview, model-actor Muzammil Ibrahim claimed that he could have been a part of the film as Ayan apparently told him that he had written it with him in mind. Muzammil shared that he was supposed to play the role that eventually went to Aditya Roy Kapur.
In a chat with Siddharth Kannan, Muzammil claimed that director Kiran Rao liked his work in his debut film Dhokha and introduced him to Ayan Mukerji, who was in the process of putting Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani together. “Ayan liked me a lot. He told me that he was writing Yeh Jaawani Hai Deewani keeping me in mind,” he said. He was asked if this had anything to do with Deepika Padukone being cast in the film as they had previously been in a two-year relationship. “This had nothing to do with Deepika,” he claimed and added that he endorsed Deepika’s casting in the film.
“He would often discuss casting with me, if he should take Deepika Padukone, Katrina Kaif… He would discuss this with me. We were very close. Deepika was the right cast for that film and I told him the same thing,” he said and then discussed how, in his opinion, things fell apart. “What happened was… it went to the casting agents later on. And I hashed it out for a long time because there was a misunderstanding between me and Ayan for a long time as to why he didn’t cast me.”
Muzammil recalled that Ayan assured him that he would give him the script, but it never happened. “Ayan told me that he will give me the script to read. And the casting agents came in the way and what they did, and how they communicated between me and Ayan…” he said and added, “Ayan told me that I really wanted you in this film so obviously you feel… The casting agents really f**ked up things a lot. They have their own agendas and how they communicate things to the director. As long as things were between me and Ayan, we never had a slip. When it came to the casting agents, they did a lot of favouritism.” In the same chat, Muzammil also said that he believed his performance in his his debut film Dhokha, was better than Ranbir Kapoor’s performance in Saawariya. Both these films released in 2007.
Muzammil said that he “hesitated” to call Ayan when things were getting bad. “I was thinking that since he hasn’t given me a script, is my role too tiny? I felt Ranbir and Ayan were very good friends… That was also playing in my head. He also told me that the casting will take lead from here so it was not nice of me to ask him. Maybe I should have said something,” he said.
Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani starred Ranbir, Deepika, Aditya Roy Kapur and Kalki Koechlin in lead roles.
