Indian actor Aamir Khan wanted his son Azad to play the lead role in Laal Singh Chadda, an official remake of the Hollywood movie Forest Gump, but filmmaker Aditya Chopra changed his mind, Bollywood Hungama reported.

“Laal Singh Chaddha is not a plot-heavy film. Instead, it’s an episodic fare and one should not launch debutants in such a type of a film,” Aamir quoted Aditya during a media interaction.

The film, which also stars Kareena Kapoor Khan and Naga Chaitanya in lead roles, will hit theatres worldwide on August 11. It is one of the much-awaited movies of the year as the remake took years to complete because of rights and the coronavirus pandemic.

Aamir Khan was unsure about Advait Chandan’s abilities to direct the movie, leading to a test shoot of seven to eight key scenes from the movie. The original Forest Gump, which bagged five Academy Awards in 1995, was directed by Robert Zemeckis.

Meanwhile, Aamir’s son Junaid Khan just returned home after studying acting in the USA and his father asked him to play the lead character of Laal Singh Chaddha in the test shoot. “The superstar felt that he’ll kill two birds with one stone – through the test shoot, he’ll learn not just about Advait Chandan’s directing abilities but also about Junaid Khan’s acting abilities.”

Aamir and his ex-wife Kiran Rao were impressed by Junaid’s performance in the final cut. The ace actor decided to launch his son in a big-budget movie and showed the cut to many people in the film fraternity. They agreed with Aamir’s thoughts. So eventually the Dangal actor, who had prepared for the role, cut his long beard.

But, two people – writer Atul Kulkarni and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge director Aditya Chopra – suggestions prompted Aamir to rethink the decision. Both felt that Aamir should play the lead role.

The ace actor agreed with Aditya’s piece of advice to not take a risk with newcomers in such a plot and play the titular role instead.

“It was Junaid Khan who inspired me not Tom Hanks, the actor that played the main role in the original film,” Aamir said in reply to a query. Junaid “got the sur of Laal Singh Chaddha right as just like the character,” he added.

He added that Junaid did not feel bad about the decision as “he is practical” and did not want to be part of “such a huge budget” movie.