Despite replacing her in Tezaab, Madhuri Dixit stood Meenakshi Seshadri during Damini casting: ‘Took a stand for me’ | Bollywood News
The casting of N Chandra’s 1988 blockbuster romantic action film Tezaab came back into spotlight last month after actor Aditya Pancholi claimed he was the first choice for the film, but was unceremoniously replaced because of nepotism. While the film was produced Chandra as well, it was producer Boney Kapoor’s influence that got Pancholi replaced his younger brother Anil Kapoor as the male lead of the film.
Another lesser known trivia exs about the casting of the female lead of Tezaab. Initially, Meenakshi Sesdhari was being considered for the part. The actor, who broke through in Hindi cinema opposite Jackie Shroff in Subhash Ghai’s 1983 action romance Hero, became one of the leading female actors of the 1980s. She was also doing Tinnu Anand’s 1988 cult vigilante action film Shahenshah opposite Amitabh Bachchan when she was approached for Tezaab.
After negotiations that went on for months, N Chandra decided to drop Seshadri because he couldn’t agree to the high fees quoted her. She was eventually replaced rising star Madhuri Dixit, who starred with her in Kranthi Kumar’s 1986 romantic film Swati, in which Seshari played the titular role and Dixit played her stepser. Dixit became an overnight star with Tezaab, particularly after the massive success of her dance song “Ek Do Teen Chaar”.
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The bad blood between Dixit and Seshadri, however, got even thicker during the casting of Shanakht in 1989, for which director Tinnu Anand had cast Seshadri as the second female lead and Dimple Kapadia as the female lead. However, after Kapadia walked out of the film, Anand cast Seshadri’s junior and Tezaab replacement Dixi as the female lead opposite Bachchan. This didn’t sit well with Seshadri, who then walked out of the film. As it happened, the movie was made, but never saw light of the day.
A tw in the story came during the casting of Rajkumar Santoshi’s 1993 seminal courtroom drama Damini opposite Sunny Deol. After the director reportedly fell in love with Meenakshi Seshadri and even proposed to her, she didn’t reciprocate his advances. This prompted Santoshi to replace her. But a lot of the female actors, including Madhuri Dixit, stood in solidarity with Seshadri and declined the offer, forcing Santoshi to retain Seshadri, who delivered one of her career’s best performances in the film.
Also Read — Meenakshi Seshadri admits she handled fallout with Subhash Ghai ‘poorly’: ‘He dropped me and started working with other actresses’
“They all supported me and said, ‘No, we feel something is very wrong. If we accept this proposal… we cannot do it. Either she continues or we’re sorry we can’t oblige you.’ I felt that was the time when my respect for each and every one of female colleagues of mine shot up like this,” said Sesdhari in an interview with Zoom last year. “I know for sure that Madhuri was one of them. I’m not 100% sure of the other names,” she added.
