When Shah Rukh Khan Was to Play Tom Hanks' Role in Forrest Gump Remake Helmed by Kundan Shah

Laal Singh Chaddha has released and seems to be creating magic already. Early box office trends clearly hint that the Aamir Khan-Kareena Kapoor Khan starrer has managed to get an upper hand over Akshay Kumar starrer Raksha Bandhan. The film also released after much delay. Announced years back, the film was pushed due to the pandemic, and was wrapped up only recently.

Aamir Khan, in several interviews, has also spoke about how difficult it was for the team to acquire the remake rights of the Tom Hanks’ Forrest Gump. Laal Singh Chaddha is the official Hindi remake of the 1994 film, that has achieved cult status. But did you know that Bollywood has been planning to remake this film for decades. In fact, a remake of the film was also announced and it was to star, hold your breath, none other than Shah Rukh Khan!

Yes, you read that right. Shah Rukh Khan was to work with his Kabhi Ha Kabhi Na director Kundan Shah for a remake of Forrest Gump. That was the ’90s, when getting the remake rights was a task altogether, and the makers had to make significant changes to the script to make a film along the same lines. The film was earlier to be done with Anil Kapoor playing Hanks’ character. However, there had been creative differences, and after he dropped out, the Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron director roped in SRK in the film. The news was also publicized, and here’s a cutout of the report.

Kundan Shah had claimed that Anil Kapoor realized the dedication required to make such a film, and opted out, the lack of diplomacy apparently didn’t go well with the actor. Shah Rukh Khan then came on board. Kundan Shah had even said that he was mentally prepared to finish the film fast. However, it ran into production problems and was put in the backburner forever.

In a very recent interview after the announcement of Advait Chandan’s film, Anil Kapoor had revealed that he was the one to have brought Forrest Gump remake to Kundan Shah. In an interview with an agency, he had said, “It was not pitched by Kundan, I had pitched it to him. I wanted to do the film. Before the film could release in India, someone had told me about it. I then told Kundan, ‘Let’s make this film’."

Shah then wrote the script, but Anil did not like it. He continued, “I always found problems in the second half. As we didn’t have the rights of the film, the second half was entirely changed. You can’t copy it as it is. But the second half didn’t work for me. We had even recorded the songs for the film."

While Anil Kapoor doesn’t have anything to do with Laal Singh Chaddha, Shah Rukh Khan is now in fact actually a part of the official Forrest Gump remake. The actor played the character similar to Elvis Presley in the original, and it is shown how he learnt his signature arm pose from a young Laal in the film. It is almost like Shah Rukh Khan was fated to be associated with Forrest Gump remake, and if not in the ’90s, he did it in 2022!

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