Alia Bhatt 'Too Big' To Work With Varun Dhawan? Sunny Sankari Ki Tulsi Kumari Director Addresses Cast Reshuffle Rumours

Sunny Sankari Ki Tulsi Kumari hit the big screens on October 2 alongside Rishab Shetty starrer Kantara: Chapter 1. The Bollywood rom-com collected ₹10.11 crore on its opening day at the domestic box office. The underwhelming response to the film has been accompanied by poor to average reviews for the Shashank Khaitan directorial. The movie features Varun Dhawan, Janhvi Kapoor, Sanya Malhotra and Rohit Saraf in the lead roles.

Blinds are doing the rounds on social media that allege that Alia Bhatt was the first choice for the film and had said yes to starring in as one of the leads, but backed out of the project later on. As per online chatter, Alia and Tara Sutaria were approached for the roles of the two female leads. However, Tara feared that with Alia in the movie, all attention would be on her and her role will be sidelined. After Tara backed out, the makers approached Sanya, who was keen on doing a multi-starrer with Dharma Productions and came on board.

Also read: Despite Back-To-Back Flops, Janhvi-Varun Charged Crores For SSKTK

As the cast was shaping and Varun was finalised as the male lead, Alia backed out of the movie as she allegedly did not want to work with her Student Of The Year co-star at a point in her career where she is doing some of her biggest projects. Box office success has evaded Varun for a while, but he has given hits with Alia in the past, especially the Dulhania franchise. After Alia reportedly dropped of the project, Janhvi was approved.

Also read: After Day 1 Drubbing By Kantara, SSKTK Set For Massive Dip On Friday

Shashank, who has directed the Dulhania franchise with Varun and Alia, reacted to rumours that the Gangubai Kathiawadi actress was the first choice for SSKTK. He told Free Press Journal, "Alia was never offered this film, and this film was never supposed to be Dulhania (franchise). It was always written as Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari. I know Alia, and at the time when I was writing the film, I was very aware that she was not free for the next 2-3 years because of her work schedules."

"So I, Varun, and Karan had been in touch with Alia on multiple other occasions, discussing different ideas, sometimes ideas to make a Dulhania, but this was never it. This was always Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari, and I'm excited about it because it's also a bit of a different; it's pretty much in a similar universe, but it's a bit of a different film, and I'm excited about how people are going to pursue it or see it," he added. In SSKTK, Varun and Janhvi have reunited after Bawaal (2023).