What! These actors were considered for Humraaz instead of Ameesha Patel, Akshaye Khanna and Bobby Deol

MUMBAI: The year 2002 was reportedly considered one of the worst years for Bollywood. This year a few films became hits. Among them is Abbas-Mustan-directed suspense-thriller Humraaz. Bobby Deol, Ameesha Patel, and Akshaye Khanna-starrer was inspired by A Perfect Murder (1998).

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Released on July 26, 2002, it met with commercial and critical success, with Akshaye winning the most praise for his villainous performance. Interestingly, Ameesha Patel and Akshaye Khanna weren't the original choices for Abbas-Mustan. The duo had other actors initially, but they were replaced with Ameesha and Akshaye.

As per reports, Priyanka Chopra was signed to play the female lead in Humraaz. Priyanka was making her Bollywood debut with Humraaz. Chopra, who made her Bollywood debut with Sunny Deol's The Hero: Love Story Of A Spy (2003), was to start her Hindi film career with the thriller Humraaz, alongside Bobby Deol and Akshaye Khanna. However, her schedule did not permit her to take up the opportunity, thus she had to reject the film, and Ameesha replaced her.

Abhishek Bachchan. Yes, Jr Bachchan was signed to play the antagonist in the film. But even he had to say no to the film due to scheduling conflicts. For this film, Akshaye Khanna won the Best Villain IIFA Award, along with nominations in the same category at Filmfare and Zee Cine Awards. Both Abhishek and Priyanka later worked with Abbas-Mustan. Priyanka gave one of her career-best performances in semi-hit Aitraaz (2004), and Abhishek headlined the director-duo flop remake of The Italian Job, Players.

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In 2022, Humraaz completed 20 years, and the director-duo expressed their wish to bring a sequel to Humraaz. In an interview with PTI, directors Abbas and Mastan said, "There is one script and it could be directed as Humraaz 2. We are working on it. The idea is it could be made into a sequel. We will go for a lot of younger actors but we are still working on it." On the work front, Bobby Deol was last seen in Animal, Ameesha Patel was seen in blockbuster Gadar 2, and Akshaye Khanna was last seen in Drishyam 2.

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Credits - DNA