‘They Thought I Was Too Fat’ Shilpa Shirodkar Reacts To Malaika Replacing Her In Chaiyya Chaiyya With SRK

Malaika Arora's reality series Moving In With Malaika finally premiered on Disney+Hostar yesterday (December 5). From her car accident to her divorce from Arbaaz Khan, she candidly talked about many aspects of her life in the first episode with her close friend Farah Khan.

During the conversation, the choreographer-turned-filmmaker talked about how Chaiyya Chaiyya changed Malaika's life. For the unversed, the iconic song was a part of Mani Ratnam's 1998 release Dil Se and featured Malaika alongside Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan.

Interestingly, Farah revealed that Malaika wasn't the first choice for Chaiyya Chaiyya and the makers had also approached five other actresses including Shilpa Shetty Kundra and Shilpa Shirodkar.

Shilpa Shirodkar, who featured in many hits in the late 80s and early 90s, has now reacted to getting replaced by Malaika in the popular song. Well, the actress revealed that she lost out on the opportunity as the makers thought she was too fat. Yes, you read that right!

Revealing the same in an interview with ETimes, she said, "I was considered for Chaiyya Chaiyya. But apparently, they thought I was too fat so they offered it to Malaika."

Shilpa added, "I feel sad that I didn't get a chance to do this iconic number, but I guess its all destiny."

However, the actress further stated being sad only because she lost the chance to share the screen space with SRK in the song. However, Shilpa went on to work with the superstar in Gaja Gamini. Talking about it, she added, "Obviously it was disappointing, but then I got the privilege of sharing screen space with him in Gaja Gamini for just one scene. So my dream came true."

For the unversed, Gaja Gamini was helmed by MF Hussain and released in 2000. An ode to Hussain's favourite actress Madhuri Dixit, the film featured SRK and Naseeruddin Shah in key roles.

Coming back to Shilpa Shirodkar, she was a part of hits like Gopi Kishan, Kishen Kanhaiya, and Khurana Gawah among others. However, her popularity phased off by the late 90s and her career as a leading actress ended by 2000.

In 2013, she returned to acting with the ZEE TV show Ek Mutthi Aasmaan and later featured in Silsila Pyaar Ka and Savitri Devi College & Hospital.