In a recent interview with Faye D`Souza, Don director Farhan Akhtar shared that Aamir Khan`s role as Akash Malhotra was originally offered to Akshaye Khanna. He also mentioned how Akshaye stepped aside for the sake of the movie.

Akshaye Khanna almost played Aamir Khan`s role in `Dil Chahta Hai`

Farhan Akhtar recounted, “I have experienced true grace from Akshaye Khanna. When I met him for Dil Chahta Hai, I had offered him the role of Akash, which Aamir ended up doing… When I approached Akshaye at that point, I wanted to cast two other younger actors, so I went to Hrithik Roshan and Abhishek Bachchan, who were just one film old at that time. But they had other plans, and that didn`t happen, so I had to go for the slightly older generation of actors for Dil Chahta Hai.”