Aishwarya Rai was one of the most sought after actors in the late 1990s. Even before she became Miss World, Aishwarya was a well known model and had acting offers coming her way but after she won the peagent, filmmakers like Yash Chopra, Sooraj Barjatya and many others had showered her with film offers. At the time, Aishwarya was offered roles in films like Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Hum Saath Saath Hain among many others but she had to let them go.
In a 1999 interview with Filmfare, Aishwarya spoke about why she did not take up Karan Johar’s film. She said that the film “belonged to Kajol” and if she would had done the film, people would have said that she was doing the same thing that she did in her modelling days. She added that the dates that Karan asked for were already committed from her end to Aa Ab Laut Chalein. “As far as Kuch Kuch Hota Hai goes, Karan Johar did approach me, but the dates he needed were committed to the RK film. Moreover, Kuch Kuch… belonged to Kajol. No two ways about that. Having said that, let me add that Rani Mukherjee did a terrific job,’ she said.
She added, “So if I’d done Kuch Kuch…, it would have been tittered that, ‘Look, Aishwarya Rai is back to doing what she did in her modelling days – leaving her hair straight, wearing minis, and pouting glamorously into the camera.’ Ultimately, the hero goes back to the more real person. I know if I’d done Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, I would have been lynched.”
The part that was ultimately played by Rani Mukerji was offered to many actors of the time including Twinkle Khanna, Juhi Chawla, Urmila Matondkar among many others but presumably, no one wanted to play the third wheel in an SRK-Kajol film. Rani Mukerji had just one film until then, Raja Ki Aayegi Baaraat, and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai completely changed the trajectory of her career.
Aishwarya later worked with Karan Johar in his 2016 directorial Ae Dil Hai Mushkil where she starred alongside Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma.