Throwback: When Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was offered Mohra after Divya Bharti's untimely death stalled the movie

Mohra, one of the most iconic Bollywood films, was initially planned with Divya Bharti as the leading lady. While Raveena Tandon delivered a memorable performance, did you know the film was offered to several other actresses too?
Back in 1993, Divya Bharti shot for a few days for Mohra, but her untimely demise left the film's fate undecided. The film's co-screenplay writer Shabbir Boxwala had revealed in an interview how Mohra was offered to several stars later.He had told Bollywood Hungama, "I saw Aishwarya’s pictures and liked them. Rajiv asked me to call her. But she couldn’t do the film as she was preparing for Miss World."
He further revealed how no one was willing to be cast opposite not so established actors like Akshay Kumar and Suniel Shetty in Mohra. "And yes, we offered Mohra to Sridevi too. However, we didn’t have big male stars. Akshay and Suniel were not known. So, any heroine would think twice before saying yes to Mohra. Nobody imagined in their wildest dreams that one song ‘Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast Mast’ would change everything for Akshay and the film," he stated.
Directed by Rajiv Rai and produced by his father Gulshan Rai, Mohra emerged as one of the biggest hits of 1994. It starred Naseeruddin Shah, Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty, Raveena Tandon, Raza Murad, Gulshan Grover, Paresh Rawal, Sadashiv Amrapurkar, and Kulbhushan Kharbanda.