Prahlad Kakkar reveals Aamir quoted Rs 25L for an ad which SRK agreed to do for Rs 6L

Mumbai, Nov 7 (IANS) Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan, who recently attended actor Kamal Haasan’s birthday, once charged a price of Rs 25 lakh for a soft drink advertisement. But ‘Jawan’ superstar Shah Rukh Khan agreed to the same for Rs 6 lakh as he wanted to move out of his paying guest and buy his own home in Mumbai.

According to a media report, SRK was short of Rs 6 lakh, the amount he agreed to work on for the advertisement. However, ad filmmaker Prahlad Kakkar shared that the team behind the advertisement finally went ahead with Aamir along with two ladies - Mahima Chaudhary and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.

The advertisement is from 1995 and is for a soft drink brand featuring a mix of synth-pop and Indian music in the background.

Talking about the ad, Prahlad told the media, “The advertisement was shot borrowing the idea from the western countries.The challenge was that if the ad didn't do well, people would have criticised us saying we couldn't copy it well. And if it did well, people would criticise saying it's a copy.”

That’s the reason Prahlad was strict on choosing the cast for this ad, and told the team not to interfere with it.

“I was suggested Aamir's name as he was popular because of ‘Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak’ that time. However, he didn't lower his price that time and asked us to pay him Rs 25 lakh. While Shah Rukh Khan had agreed to do the ad for Rs 6 lakh as he wanted to buy a home and move out of his paying guest as he was short of that amount. Shah Rukh however still looked like a wannabe, main lead. Whereas Aamir looked like a fresh face and not an actor. Aamir wasn't keen to do an ad because in the industry at that time, ad was a bad name,” he said.

Prahlad further told the media: “We agreed on getting Aamir on board though, and we shot another ad with Shah Rukh Khan instead. For the ad, we got Mahima on board whose name was her original one back then. She looked like a girl next door. Then we needed a bombshell for this one. I was suggested Aishwarya for the same, who looked like a simple college-going girl with normal features. I was not too sure of casting her and told the lady as well who suggested her as the face. However, she convinced me, and we went ahead with shooting the ad featuring Aishwarya when we did her first shot for the ad.”

“Everyone was looking at Aishwarya when she did her first shot and said WOW! Finally, we went ahead with shooting with Aamir, Mahima, and Aishwarya. Overnight, Aishwarya became famous as I got 1000s of phone calls asking me who is 'Sanju'? That year, many people kept their daughters' names as 'Sanju' as well,” he added.