Sooraj Barjatya: 'Saif Ali Khan faced many ups and downs during Hum Saath Saath Hain, Amrita Singh gave him sleeping pills because...'

Sooraj Barjatya assembled a massive ensemble for his 1999 saccharine drama Hum Saath Saath Hain. It boasted off names like Salman Khan, Sonali Bendre, Mohnish Behl, Tabu, Saif Ali Khan, and Karisma Kapoor. In a recent interview, the director recalled how the Omkara actor was giving a lot of retakes and not sleeping well at night.

Barjatya said, “Saif Ali Khan’s personal life had a lot of ups and downs during the shooting of ‘Hum Saath Saath Hai’. So he was always under tension. There is an anecdote about the time of the song ‘Suno ji Dulhan’ in the film. Saif Ali Khan was taking many retakes during the shooting of this song. He was not sleeping all night, thinking about how to portray the character in a good way. I came to know this when I talked to his first wife.”

He added, “As he was not sleeping through the night, I gave Amrita a piece of advice. Amrita was advised to give him sleeping pills without Saif’s knowledge. She gave him sleeping pills without his knowledge. So many of his scenes were arranged the next day. He did it. The song gave a very good shot in one take. Everyone was shocked as he gave a very good shot.”

After multiple successful collaborations, Salman Khan and Sooraj Barjatya were coming together again for a film tentatively titled Prem Ki Shaadi. But a report by Midday says the actor has backed out of the film due to creative disagreements. It’s now being reported that Varun Dhawan or Ranveer Singh are the contenders for the role that was being essayed by Khan.

The source was quoted saying, “If you see the sort of star that Salman Khan is today and the director’s films, the two are poles apart in terms of their creative sensibilities. The script was their common ground, but over time, there were too many things they couldn’t agree on. So, it made sense for them to call it off amicably.”