Mahima Chaudhry recalled how she landed her cameo in Salman Khan-Bhumika Chawla starrer Tere Naam.
Salman Khan left a lasting impression with his performance as Radhe Mohan in Satish Kaushik’s tragedy romantic drama, Tere Naam (2003). A remake of Vikram’s Tamil film, Sethu, the film marked the Hindi film debut of actress Bhumika Chawla.
The songs of Tere Naam were a huge hit with the masses. Speaking about the blockbuster music album of this Salman Khan film, Mahima Chaudhry shared screen space with the Bollywood star in one of the songs, ‘O Jaana’.
In a recent chat with Bollywood Bubble, the ‘Pardes’ actress recounted how this song landed in her lap. She revealed that this incident occurred around the time when she survived a near-fatal car accident while filming Ajay Devgn’s Dil Kya Kare in 1999. Back then, the unfortunate event had left her with severe facial injuries from over 67 glass shards.
Mahima shared that she was originally not supposed to be a part of Tere Naam.
She recalled, “After my accident, I wanted to re-enter the industry, so I started taking on songs and guest appearances to remind audiences I was still around. Interestingly, every film I did ended up being a major hit, which led to more offers for similar roles. It became a challenge for me — I thought, ‘If this keeps happening, how will I return to being a leading lady?’”
The actress revealed that during that time, Satish Kaushik and the team were filming a song for Tere Naam in Hyderabad and needed a female lead opposite Salman Khan for it. That’s when the director approached Mahima with the offer to feature in ‘O Jaana’, and she couldn’t say no to him.
“Around that time, Satish Kaushik and the team were filming a song sequence in Hyderabad and needed a female lead to dance opposite Salman. They were unsure who to cast, and then Satish called me. I couldn’t say no. When I asked about my costume, he told me to wear my own clothes. So, everything you see in the song — the outfit, the accessories — was mine,” Mahima told the publication.
On the work front, Mahima Chaudhry has two projects in the pipeline- Kangana Ranaut’s Emergency and a Zee5 film, The Signature alongside Anupam Kher.