Long before paan masala ad, Shah Rukh Khan, Ajay Devgn were to star together in classic film

Shah Rukh Khan and Ajay Devgn have found themselves at the receiving end of trolling for appearing together in an advertisement for a paan masala brand. 

While Devgn has been associated with the brand for years, but Khan is a relative newcomer to the paan masala game.

Interestingly, the ad marks the actors' first on-screen appearance together despite both being in the Hindi film industry for more than three decades. 

Unbeknownst to some, there was a time when the actors had signed up for a film that was all set to go on floors. However, fate had other plans.

Filmmaker Rakesh Roshan had signed Khan and Devgn for his iconic Karan Arjun (1995) in the roles of Arjun and Karan respectively.

Recalling the reason why the two actors couldn’t star together, Rakesh Roshan had told Cinestaan last year, “At the time, they [Khan and Devgn] just decided to switch their roles. They came to me. Shah Rukh said, 'I will play the boxer' and Ajay Devgn said, 'I will play the lover’s role'.”

The filmmaker was taken aback by this. “I told them I couldn’t go against the image of Ajay Devgn as the action hero and Shah Rukh as the romantic guy. But they were a little adamant. And then Ajay Devgn left the film,” he said. 

This is when Roshan approached Salman Khan for the role of Karan. “Salman liked the role and we made the film,” he said.