The movie Wake Up Sid completed 10 years recently and we have to say the movie is still relevant today and it was certainly way ahead of it’s time. It is one of those coming of age films which even if you watch today after so long, will leave you with the same emotional state as it did when it was fresh.
The movie shows Ranbir Kapoor as the main antagonist and today we can’t even imagine someone else playing the part of Siddharth Mehra. One thing that very few people know about the movie is that Ranbir Kapoor was not the original choice for the film and director Ayan Mukerji was almost keen on casting Imran Khan for the role.
Recently in an interview with Film Companion, Ayan revealed how Ranbir became the part of the film. Ayan revealed that after writing the script for the movie, which took him more than two years, he went to meet Karan Johar to produce the film.
Ayan remembered, “This was in march 2008 and Saawariya had just released on Diwali 2007. I had seen the film and I loved Ranbir. At the same time, it so happened that I was very close to Kiran and Aamir. Through them, I had seen a rough cut of Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na and I really felt that film was a winner. I mentioned to Karan that there is this young actor, Imran, and he has a lot of potential and extremely handsome.”
Ayan further revealed that Karan had then met Imran and he loved him and he offered the film to Imran. Ayan said that he along with Karan then watched screening of Imran’s first film Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na. Although he loved the movie, Ayan said that he realized that for the part he had written, Imran was not the right choice.
Ayan said that after it he had to convey his feelings to Karan and he felt really awkward as Karan had already offered the film to Imran. Ayan remembered that Karan took it really well and got along with the idea of casting Ranbir Kapoor in it.
Ayan then said how he went to Ranbir’s bungalow and narrated the film to him. He said after the narration was complete Ranbir looked at him with full certainty and said that he loved it and let’s do it.
That’s how Ranbir got his third film after Saawariya and Bachna Ae Haseeno.