Not Baazigar, Shilpa Shetty Was Supposed To Make Her Bollywood Debut With A Love Story Starring Ronit Roy

Shilpa Shetty rose to fame with her debut film Baazigar alongside Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol. The film featured Shilpa as a girl who is murdered by her revenge-seeking boyfriend. Baazigar was a massive success at the box office and is still remembered for its chartbuster songs.

But do you folks know that Baazigar was not supposed to be Shilpa's debut film? Instead, she was supposed to be introduced in the film industry by filmmaker Dilip Naik in a love story featuring Ronit Roy. However, that film got shelved and Shilpa made her first screen appearance with Baazigar.

In a new interview with Mashable India, the Hungama 2 actress walked down the memory lane and shared some interesting anecdotes from her career.

Speaking about her shelved debut movie, Shilpa said, "I actually felt bad because it was a brilliant script (a love story), and I was supposed to be introduced with Ronit Roy, who was a huge star. And interestingly the project even featured his brother Rohit, so I was pretty excited to work with the them."

The actress revealed that she did her first photoshoot when she was around 16 years old. Shilpa recalled, "A photographer close to my house clicked those pictures. He saw me participating in a competition called 'Mod Girl Mod Boy'. I lost that competition. I was a young, lanky girl. My skin tone had darkened as I used to play volleyball. When you are playing in the sun, your skin really gets dark and tanned. However, that photographer took notice of me. He complimented me by saying that my face was very photogenic and offered to click my pictures. He had just arrived from America. I felt that he just wanted a scrapegoat (laughs). And I was always tall. He even offered to pay the person who did my makeup and hair as I didn't have money."

Narrating how she got her first film offered, Shilpa reminisced, "During my holidays after my tenth standard exams, I joined a beauty course and sent those pictures. After that I started receiving calls from modelling agencies. When I was in my eleventh standard, I got a call to give a screen test for an ad. I was sitting there and in front of me was Dilip Naik Sir who was an assistant to Yash Chopra. He had directed a film called Nakhuda. I think he was searching for a new girl. He was going through pictures of models in photo albums when he came across my picture. He glanced at me a few times. My mother had also accompanied me. He asked me if I wanted to act. He told me, "Tumhari aankhon mein koi baat hai." My mother who was sitting next to me said, "No, no my daughter will not act because I was around 17 at that time."

She continued, "When I told him that my father won't allow me to act, he visited our house at night and convinced my dad overnight that I was a perfect fit for his film, and that I could also continue my studies side by side. Well, that film never got made."

The actress also opened up on how she bagged Baazigar and said, "I got a call from the production house Venus. Back then, Screen was very famous. It was a film paper which used to go to every production house and all the people who are affliated with the industry and in this mileu. So, it was announced there saying, 'Introducing Shilpa Shetty'. I still remember that I was in this red top with my hair styled in a bushy way. I got a call from Ratan Jain. Abbas bhai (Abbas from Abbas Mustan duo) met me. I didn't even auditioned. They narrated me the role and asked me if I will do it. They told me that it was a remake of the film Kiss Before Dying. I said that I won't kiss on screen. That was the first thing that I said to Abbas bhai. He told me that there were no kissing scenes, and that I only had to enact my role. I thought that it was a great offer as I was cast opposite Shah Rukh Khan. That was my first tryst with the film industry, and after that it's history."

After a sabbatical of 14 years, Shilpa made her acting comeback last year with Priyadarshan's comic caper Hungama 2. She is now awaiting the release of Sabbir Khan's Nikamma alongside Abhimanyu Dassani and Shirley Setia.