Was Dhurandhar actor Saumya Tandon considered for Imtiaz Ali’s Rockstar before Nargis Fakhri?

Actress Saumya Tandon recently returned to the big screen after 18 years, playing Akshaye Khanna’s wife in the movie “Dhurandhar”. Although people still remember her for her role as Roop in Imtiaz Ali’s 2007 movie “Jab We Met”, the actress revealed that she met Imtiaz Ali for the first time during the shooting of the movie “Rockstar” and she was cast for the female lead.

The actress explains, “I actually met Imtiaz for the lead role in another film. I met him through UTV. He was doing ‘Rockstar’ with them then. So we met for ‘Rockstar’ and then this film (Jab We Met) came along and I felt like I was a completely new actor with no one to guide me. I met Imtiaz Ali for the first time while he was casting for a Kashmiri girl.”

The actress eventually opted for the role of Roop, who plays Geet’s (Kareena Kapoor Khan) sister. Saumya says, “I was very young when ‘Jab We Met’ was shot. I had just graduated from college and had no idea what was going on. I really loved Imtiaz, just like I loved Aditya Dhar’s script, and I thought, ‘Let’s sneak away and see what it’s like in big movies and that will be kind of a starting point for me.’ But the movie was a huge hit.”

The Ranbir Kapoor film later resumed production and was released in 2011, starring Nargis Fakhri.

“They were meeting a few girls for ‘Rockstar’. I don’t know if they chose me. That film failed on UTV then and ‘Jab We Met’ was made with Ashtavinayak. ‘Rockstar’ was made with Ranbir Kapoor two years later. It was initially planned to be made with John Abraham and a new girl,” he says.

Also read: Akshay Kumar reacts to viral meme praising Akshaye Khanna’s ‘Dhurandhar’ performance: ‘Kabhi ghamand nahi kiya’