Did you know Hema Malini gave Shah Rukh Khan his first break but disliked him for certain reasons?

Almost three decades ago, the Baadshah of Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan, made his Bollywood debut with Deewana (1992). The film also starred Divya Bharti alongside the actor. Initially, Dil Aashna Hai was supposed to be SRK's debut film but the delay in the film release resulted in Deewana hitting the theatres first.

Dil Aashna Hai was produced and directed by Hema Malini and also starred Divya Bharti, Jeetendra, Mithun Chakraborty, Dimple Kapadia, Amrita Singh and Sonu Walia. So, it was Hema Malini, who actually gave Shah Rukh his first break.

How the Dream Girl found the hero of her film:

According to a few reports, Hema Malini although had finalised the entire cast of the film, she couldn't zero in on the lead actor. But her hunt stopped one day when she spotted SRK in Fauji (TV show) and learnt that he was a stage actor from Delhi. She immediately asked her assistant to call the actor to Bombay (now Mumbai).

Initially, the My Name Is Khan actor didn't take the call seriously as he thought it was a prank played by his friends but upon realising that he indeed got a call from Hema Malini's office, Shah Rukh stood outside the Dream Girl's bungalow the next morning.

In an old interview Hema Malini had revealed that Shah Rukh was extremely nervous when she met him for the first time. His audition, however, turned out to be satisfactory despite his good acting skills and the reason was his hair and also his style of speaking. The actress-director was irritated with SRK's unruly hair as she couldn't see any expression in his eyes. 

The hair was eventually sorted out after a good haircut and with the help of gel. Eventually, Hema started liking his style of speaking as well.

SRK on meeting Hema Malini:

Several years later, at the launch of 'SRK 25 years of a life' - a book written by Samar Khan, the Harry Met Sejal star recalled his days of meeting Hema ji and said, "I was an odd-looking boy, I spoke too fast and I was not from a film background, but they gave me an opportunity.

Hema-ji is not here, but tell me who gets an opportunity in his life to sit across the Dream Girl and she says, "I like your nose, it's very aristocratic and you got into my film because of that."' The nose that I went about hiding, that's the nose Hema Malini likes".