Kareena Kapoor reveals how Shahid Kapoor convinced her to take the ‘Jab We Met’ role

New Delhi Oct 26 Imtiaz Ali’s romantic comedy Jab We Met, starring Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor Khan, completes 14 years of its release. The film remains a family favourite today, owing to its easy-going interpretation of romance, and of course a slew of iconic dialogues from Kareena’s ‘Main Apni Favourite Hoon’ to ‘Kyun dekhoon main ganne ke khet?’ The film revolved around a heartbroken businessman Aditya (Shahid) who is contemplating suicide when he meets the bubbly and energetic Geet, who gets him embroiled in her escapades.

Ironically, while the film showed the effortless chemistry of Shahid and Kareena who were in a relationship at that time, it was also their last project together as a couple. In an interview to Film Companion, Kareena recalled how it was all a strange twist of fate, as she was shooting for Tashan simultaneously, which starred Saif Ali Khan, her husband now. “In fact, it was Shahid who actually said that I should hear this script of this film. He was like, ‘It’s amazing, the girl’s part is amazing and you should do it.’ He kind of actually got this entire project together and both of us ended up doing this film.”

Kareena said that she was sure that Tashan would change her career at the time, as it was a Yash Raj film. She said, “I was giving Jab We Met the treatment, ‘Listen I’m working with Yash Raj films, I’m playing the main role, I’ve become a size zero, and I’m going to kill it.’ That was my vibe when I was on the sets of Jab We Met.” She added that she was convinced that ‘passion project’ Tashan would ‘kill it’ and change her life and she would become the next Uma Thurman, or so she believed. However, Tashan bombed at the box office and received negative reviews.

“I was just shooting for Jab We Met,” she said with a laugh. “Destiny had its own plans, and a lot happened in the making of this film and Tashan. This changed my career and that [Tashan] changed my life, as I met the man of my dreams and I did marry him. This took its own course where Shahid and I went our own ways and this gem came out of it.”

Kareena Kapoor even won the Filmfare Award for the film, and it was Saif who handed it to her on stage. In her emotional speech, she thanked Shahid as well, “Three very important people to thank, Imtiaz, this award is yours. Thank you for casting me. My producers for making this film, my co-star Shahid for giving me the strength.”

Jab We Met inspired quite a few trends after its release, especially the bubbly Punjabi small-town girl trope that was seen in several films. The film completes 14 years of its release today.