In a revelation, filmmaker Yash Chopra said that for the hit Silsila he had earlier chosen to cast Smita Patil and Parveen Babi alongside Amitabh Bachchan instead of Jaya Bachchan and Rekha. In a conversation with superstar Shah Rukh Khan on the occasion of his 80th birthday, Chopra disclosed that both Smita Patil and Parveen Babi had signed the film.

Silsila, the 1981 romantic film directed by Mr Chopra starred besides Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Rekha, Sanjeev Kumar and Kulbhushan Kharbanda, with Shashi Kapoor in a special appearance. "I had signed both Smita Patil and Parveen Babi and both of them were to start shooting. Smita was to do the role played by Jaya Bachchan and Parveen that of Rekha. I went to meet Amitji and spoke to him about the film," Mr Chopra said.

"It was Amitji who asked me if I was happy... content with the casting (Smita Patil, Parveen Babi and Amitabh Bachchan) and do I feel it is the ideal casting. I told him I wanted to cast him, Jayaji and Rekha. He took a long pause and told me that he was fine with the decision but asked me to convince the two actresses," he said.

Later, Mr Chopra met Jaya and Rekha and both of them agreed to do the film. "I had told both (Jaya and Rekha) of them that koi gadbadi na ho (hope there will be no disturbance on the sets)," he chuckled... He seemed to be referring to the real life tension between the two actress, courtesy their love for Bachchan. Mr Chopra revealed that Parveen was fine with it but Smita Patil was hurt mainly because Chopra had asked his actor friend Shashi Kapoor to pass the bad news to her.