Upala KBR (DNA; April 29, 2016)


Sometime in 1988, when director Sooraj was looking for a new face to romance Prem (Salman), Dilip Kumar’s niece Shaheen Banu did a screen test for the part, and though she fit the vanilla Rajshree heroine mode, she didn’t get the part. Perhaps it was fate. Shaheen made her debut in Maha Sangram in 1990.

Then two decades and then some, passed. Sooraj was looking for a heroine opposite Prem (Salman, again) for Prem Ratan Dhan Paayo, Shaheen’s daughter Sayyeshaa wanted to audition for the part. Since it was the same actor and same director with whom the mother had tried her luck to work with, Shaheen was cautioned not to accompany her beti for the audition, but the enthusiastic mother went along with Sayyeshaa and history repeated itself.

An industry source says, “It would have been awkward to cast her, given that her mother too had auditioned to romance Salman. Had Sooraj not known whose daughter she was, it would probably have worked. But knowing who Sayyeshaa was, casting her would have been like a real life Lamhe story.”

Sayyeshaa’s mother Shaheen denies that she or her daughter had auditioned for Maine Pya Kiya or Prem Ratan Dhan Payo. “These are just rumours,” she says.

Incidentally Sayyeshaa is making her debut opposite Ajay Devgn in Shivaay in 2016.