Chak De! was offered to me before SRK, reveals Salman

Salman Khan

While Shah Rukh Khan walked away with both critical acclaim and box-office success with 2007’s sports-drama ‘Chak De’, not many know that the role was first offered to Salman Khan.

In an exclusive interview with Firstpost, the actor revealed why he chose to give Chak De a miss, “My image was totally different,” he says, adding with a laugh, “My fans would have wanted me to wear a mini skirt and start playing a hockey match which wouldn’t have suited the film! It wasn’t my genre yet. Chak De! was a serious film whereas I was doing only commercial cinema at that time — which I still am and will never move out of that format.”

Being Salman, he also cheekily added, “Shah Rukh should also get some good roles!”. Incidentally, Salman had also refused two other movies that SRK did and went on to become a massive hits – Baazigar and Josh.

Earlier, Ali Abbas Zafar, the director of Salman’s upcoming sports biopic ‘Sultan’, had said that he wouldn’t have made the film if the actor didn’t sign for the role. But, the ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’ actor responded to the claim by confessing, “I have heard this many times and all those films I refused have been made with someone else, for instance, Chak De. Had I refused Ek Tha Tiger, it would have gone to Shah Rukh or Aamir or Hrithik”.

On a lighter note, the actor addressed what kind of movies he is definitely not looking at taking up in the near future, “I am scared of the horror film genre! No horror, no sex films for me — not yet.”