Bhumika Chawla reveals she was supposed to be in Bajirao Mastani after Tere Naam: ‘My saree caught fire…’

Tere Naam fame Bhumika Chawla once did a photoshoot as she was supposed to be in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Bajirao Mastani. However, an accident took place.

Actor Bhumika Chawla in a new interview revealed she was supposed to be in filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Bajirao Mastani. Back in 2003, Bhumika rose to fame with her Bollywood debut film Tere Naam alongside Salman Khan. In the same year, she said she gave a screen test, followed by a photo shoot where her saree caught fire mistakenly.

Bhumika Chawla was approached first for Bajirao Mastani.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali took years to make his much-awaited film Bajirao Mastani. While he has been working on the idea of the film since his hit film Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, he finally narrowed it down to Deepika Padukone as Mastani and Ranveer Singh as Bajirao. Priyanka Chopra appeared as Kashibai and the film was released in 2015.

In an interview with RJ Siddharth Kanan, Bhumika said, “I was supposed to do Bajirao Mastani also, by the way.” “Woh actually bohot saal pehle ki baat hai, over the years change ho jata hai (It happened years ago and decisions get changed over the years),” she reasoned why it didn't work out for her.

“My screen test happened soon after Tere Naam. I had done a photo shoot with Sir in his style. My saree caught fire because ghee and oil spilled on my saree. I was holding the diyas in his style and it fell, and I was wearing a silk saree. I remember that happened,” she added about a mishap on the sets.

Bajirao Mastani is not the only film for which Bhumika was approached first. in the same interview, she revealed about being replaced in hit films like Jab We Met and Munnabhai MMS. In the end, her roles went to Kareena Kapoor and Vidya Balan respectively.

Bhumika's latest outing is Salman Khan's Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan. It stars Salman with Pooja Hegde in the lead roles. Raghav Juyal, Siddharth Nigam, Jassie Gill, Shehnaaz Gill, Palak Tiwari, and Vinali Bhatnagar were also a part of the film besides Bhumika. It marked Shehnaaz and Palak's entry into Bollywood.

Bhumika is yet to announce her next Hindi film. She was last seen in the Tamil thriller Kannai Nambathey.