Kareena Kapoor Khan Birthday Trivia: Not Refugee! When the Actress ‘Accidentally’ Made Her Screen Debut in Hrithik Roshan’s Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai!

It's common knowledge that Kareena Kapoor was supposed to debut along with Hrithik Roshan in Kaho Naa...Pyaar Hai. But did you know she actually shot a scene for the film before she was replaced by Ameesha Patel? And it's not a lie as Kareena can still be visible in that scene albeit faintly. Although Kareena debuted in the same year with Refugee (2000) opposite Abhishek Bachchan, KNPH could have given her career a huge thrust as the movie was wildly successful. Kareena Kapoor Khan Birthday Special: She Came, She Walked and She Ruled Our Hearts with her Phenomenal Fashion Offerings (View Pics)

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So what happened? Well, as per Rakesh Roshan, the director of the film, Kareena's mother Babita made things difficult for the actress' inclusion in the movie. He told The Quint that four days before the shoot of a song, Babita asked Roshan Sr to cancel the song shoot and instead do a dialogue scene. That didn't go down well with the director and he decided to not have Kareena in it.

However, there is one scene of Kareena left in the movie, where it was supposed to be Ameesha Patel. Since it was a long, fleeting shot, nobody recognised it was a different actress (who also wore different clothes) when the film came out. Also Kareena hadn't made her debut by then. it's only when the film came on DVD and in cable, that people caught the gaffe!

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To give you an idea of what it would have been like to see Hrithik and Kareena together in their debut film, here's a glimpse.

Roshan met Ameesha Patel, who is his friend's daughter, during a wedding and asked her if she was interested in movies. Recalling the incident, he told The Quint, "I casually asked her if she was interested in films. She said she hasn’t given a thought to it but she doesn't mind. So I invited her over to our house. I called Ameesha and made both Hrithik and her sit together. I saw that they were a perfect match and they would make for an excellent pair on screen." Rest as they say is history.

Kareena, however, later worked with Hrithik Roshan in four other movies - Karan Johar's Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Subhash Ghai's Yaadein, Kunal Kohli's Mujhse Dosti Karoge and Sooraj Barjatya's Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon. They were considered a very hot pair, and there were also rumours that they were dating, which lead to speculations of how to avoid them, Kareena and Hrithik stopped working with each other.