Actor and writer Piyush Mishra’s career would have been completely different if he had acted instead of Salman Khan in ‘Maine Pyar Kiya’ in Mumbai. This is the same movie that made Salman Khan a star. The 1989 romantic musical drama marked the debut of filmmaker Sooraj Barjatya. Recently, in a conversation with The Lallantop, Piyush Mishra revealed that he was offered the film, but he was unable to continue.
He insists it was an “accident” but has no regrets about what happened next. It was an accident, but I don’t regret it. When I was studying the last year of NSD, I had few months left to leave. My director called me into his room. Now, I was a very handsome boy, I was very handsome in my time. He had a German jaw and a Roman nose. When I went to the camera, I met a person who was a great director, I’m not going to take his name, and he was casting his son as a director. They said they’re making a movie called ‘Maine Pyar Kiya’, they’ve shortlisted the girl, now they’ve come to NSD to find the male lead.”
During this, Piyush Mishra revealed that the Barjatyas asked him to come to their Mumbai office as soon as he finished his work at the National School of Drama, even as the head of the school insisted on giving him a chance to act in the film. But Bhagya and Mishra had other plans.
He said: “He was glad to see me, asked my name, when I will graduate from the institute. She asked me to come to Mumbai immediately after that and while he was handing me his business card she asked me to come immediately. I said ok I will definitely go. She also liked my feature and clicked on the photo. A fortnight later, the director (of NFDC) met me and told me that he had received a call for me and asked me to leave for Mumbai immediately, even if it meant leaving NSD halfway.”
He further added, “I said I would go but I didn’t. Until then, there was a big khata thi in dil, pata nahi kyun duniya se hata ho thi. I went there after three years and came to know that Salman Khan was planning to do this movie”. And I thought that was great. But if he had come back then, I wouldn’t have been able to do the kind of work I did afterwards.”
Please tell here that Salman Khan and Bhagyashree’s leading man ‘Maine Pyar Kiya’ was a blockbuster. After the film, Sooraj Barjatya teamed up with Khan to give memorable hits like Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!, Hum Saath Saath Hain and Prem Ratan Dhan Payo.