Happy New Year: Lesser known facts

Shah Rukh Khan seems to have already created enough buzz for Happy New Year. The film is being touted as one of the most-awaited films of the year and is trending on social networking sites. Besides SRK, the film has a stellar ensemble cast comprising of Deepika Padukone, Abhishek Bachchan, Boman Irani, Vivaan Shah, Sonu Sood, Sarah-Jane Dias and Jackie Shroff. We list some unknown facts about the Farah Khan directorial.

Choreographer-turned-director, Farah Khan keeps herself busy with reality show projects and also choreographs for other films. Her association with Malaika Arora Khan is established right from their 'Chaiya Chaiya' days. However, while working on Happy New Year, the choreographer refused to take on any other projects that might distract her from her Diwali extravaganza HNY. Farah Khan refused to choreograph for her brother Sajid Khan's film Humshakals. She also didn't choreograph Malaika for Dolly Ki Doli. According to a report in The Times of India, despite Arbaaz's constant requests, Farah refused to choreograph the song.

There were rumours that Happy New Year was initially supposed to be made right after the success of Main Hoon Na. Farah Khan and Shah Rukh Khan had decided to work on the script. However, following a fight between SRK and Farah's husband, film editor Shirish Kunder, there was reportedly a fallout between the two. At that time a completely different cast was expected to be a part of the film. According to a PTI report, Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Zayed Khan and Juhi Chawla were supposed to be in the film.

Farah Khan has managed to bring together a huge star cast of varied actors like, Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Abhishek Bachchan, Boman Irani, Vivaan Shah and Sonu Sood. While planning the film, Farah Khan was only sure of Shah Rukh Khan for the lead role and a lot of names were being considered for the rest of the cast. There were reports of TV actress Ankita Lokhande making her film debut with Happy New Year. Apart from that, John Abraham was also supposed to play a parallel lead in the movie. Speaking about the same to Bollywoodhungama, John said, "I could not do Happy New Year because I have my home productions to do. I told SRK about it and SRK is always gracious, because he has his own home production too. He told me, 'John you should concentrate on your home production.' I am very fond of him and it was very amicable."

Farah Khan is known to come up with some quirky ideas for the music videos of her films. For Om Shanti Om she managed to rope in a lot of Bollywood biggies, while for Main Hoon Naa she shot a quirky video with the cast. A similar thing is expected of Happy New Year as well. Interesting names are cropping up as potential cameos in the film. Malaika Arora Khan will also be seen in a small role in Happy New Year and speculations are rife about Prabhu Dheva's cameo in an interesting dance number.

Farah Khan may come across as a very lenient filmmaker given her comfort level with the stars, but Abhishek Bachchan insists that she is a big disciplinarian on the sets of the film. According to a report in The Times of India, Abhishek Bachchan said, "If you are working with Farah, you don't get any time at all. Between one cut and the next shot, she is ready. I think having triplets helped her prepare for Happy New Year. We were like her kids and she knew exactly how to manage all the 'children' on the set. She was like a strict mother."
She is a responsible mother too and not just on the sets. The director had to skip work once to look after her kids who were not well.