From Hrithik Roshan and Abhishek Bachchan to Ayesha Takia and Nana Patekar, Bollywood filmmaker Farah Khan opened up on the casting challenges, before finalising the star-studded cast for her directorial debut ‘Main Hoon Na’. In a new tell-all with an Indian media outlet, Farah Khan spoke about the unwavering support from her close friend and a constant in her films, Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan. She shared, “I always face casting challenge in my films except for Shahrukh Khan. He always agrees to do my films.” Further recalling the same about her debut film as a director, Khan spilt, “During Main Hoon Na, we didn’t have casting directors and me and my assistants used to cast people. Except for Shahrukh and Sushmita Sen, whom I had told long ago that I will cast her in my film, we had no confirmed actors.” The season choreographer revealed that she considered Hrithik Roshan, Abhishek Bachchan and also Sohail Khan for the second lead role of Lucky, before Zayed Khan finally came on board, at the very last minute. “The first choice for Zayed’s role was Hrithik Roshan. This was before Hrithik’s debut film Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai had released. After the film released, Hrithik became Hrithik and he left. I also approached Abhishek Bachchan for Zayed’s role but that didn’t work out. Then I approached Sohail Khan and that too didn’t work out,” she recalled. “Just one or two months before the shooting of Main Hoon Na, I went to see Zayed’s film in theatre. He had a good smile and I thought he was charming. He came on board at the last minute.” Khan continued, “I initially wanted to cast Ayesha Takia for Amrita’s role, but then Imtiaz Ali took her for Socha Na Tha. She told me that she is going for five days, but she didn’t come back for five weeks.” “Then I started looking for another female lead. Amrita Rao came on board just 15 days before the film’s shooting,” she added. The filmmaker also divulged that she approached veterans like Naseeruddin Shah, Nana Patekar and Kamal Haasan, all of whom turned down the negative role of the terrorist, and it eventually happened with Suniel Shetty. Khan’s debut directorial ‘Main Hoon Na’ received positive reviews from critics and was also a huge Box Office success upon its release in 2004. The masala entertainer fetched several prestigious awards of the season as well.