starring celebrated its 25 years of release recently. The film became the talk of the town and netizens had a lot of anticipation, but it was a failure at the box office. Mela was released on January 7, 2000. Did you know Twinkle Khanna was not the original choice for Mela? Yes, you read that right! Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was the original choice for Mela and director Dharmesh Darshan shared the reason why the actress agreed to do the cameo in the film for him.

Darshan was talking to Bollywood Hungama when he was asked whether was indeed the original choice. He said, ‘She was. She was also my first choice for the role of Memsaab in Raja Hindustani (1996). My heart was on her. But she urgently had to go for Miss World. I didn’t want to take any chances as I wanted an actress who could devote her full time to the film and Bollywood. It was her sheer grace that she didn’t hold it in her heart’.

He even added saying, A heroine of her level had worked with Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan; you name it. Yet, she agreed and drove a couple of hours to shoot that scene’. She was paired opposite Faisal Khan and not Aamir and still agreed to do the cameo in Mela for him. The director said that he is often asked why Aishwarya did a cameo in the film and Twinkle was in the lead role. He said, ‘I’ve met ladies who have told me, ‘Kya sir; aapne Aishwarya ko cameo diya aur Twinkle Khanna ko itna bada role de diya!’ He concluded by saying, ‘This track was purchased by Hollywood for The Guru (2002). In fact, I am the only Bollywood director whose 3 songs were purchased by Hollywood makers and shot by them. ‘Pardesi Pardesi’ and ‘Pucho Zara Pucho’ from Raja Hindustani were a part of the soundtrack of V For Vendetta (2005) and played in the background in Kate Winslet-starrer Holy Smoke (1999) respectively’.

On the work front, Mela was one of the last on-screen works of Twinkle and she quit the film industry in 2001 with the film Love Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega.

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