Mission Kashmir

Security is always tight in Kashmir because of the real terrorist threat, which is also the film's subject. When lead actor Hrithik Roshan arrived on location to begin shooting Mission Kashmir, his first film had not yet been released in cinemas, so no one recognized his face. Arriving for the first day's shoot dressed as the Kashmiri militant he plays in the film, he was refused entry to the set by security, who took him for a genuine Kashmiri because of his fair complexion. Shortly afterwards, on 14 January 2000, his debut film Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai made him an overnight superstar, 'Hrithikmania' swept India, and his face instantly became recognizable everywhere.

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This is the only film in which Jackie plays the villain while Sanjay Dutt plays an honest police officer; in other films such as Khalnayak, Kartoos and Jung, Jackie played an honest police officer.

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The promos and trailers for Mission Kashmir were made by Rajkumar Hirani, who is now an acclaimed director in his own right.

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Rakesh Roshan stated plainly that he did not like the film because of a major gap in the script: no explanation was given or shown of where Hrithik's character was between childhood and adulthood (8 years).

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Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan were offered the lead roles of Altaf and Inayat, but could not take them because of their commitment to Mohabbatein (2000), which was released the same Diwali weekend.

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Director Anurag Kashyap was the second unit director on the portions shot in Kashmir.

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Sonali Kulkarni plays Hrithik's stepmother in the film, while in real life she is younger than Hrithik.

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This is the first film Sanjay Dutt and Hrithik Roshan made together.

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This is the first film Jackie Shroff and Hrithik Roshan made together.

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Anurag worked on Mission Kashmir but left the project midway. By then Hrithik Roshan had become a major star, and the producers wanted to change the script to match his new status. Anurag disagreed and left, but he was still given credit.

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The film was released alongside Mohabbatein, which ironically was also offered to Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan along with Mission Kashmir.

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Actor Sanjay Suri was uncomfortable with the film, its subject and its approach, because his father had been killed by terrorists in Kashmir. He felt that Vidhu Chopra glorified terrorism in Kashmir.

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The film's composers — Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa of Shankar Ehsaan Loy — appear as themselves on screen during the song 'Rind Posh Maal', a peace concert filmed in a TV studio. (Mission Kashmir was Shankar Ehsaan Loy's breakthrough film as film composers.)

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Dimple Kapadia was offered Sonali Kulkarni's role but turned it down.

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Aishwarya Rai was first approached for the role played by Preity Zinta.

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Anu Malik was initially signed to compose the soundtrack after having previously scored Kareeb for Vinod Chopra, but he later backed out because he did not want to share the soundtrack credits with Shankar Ehsaan Loy.

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The film was released in cinemas in Canada.

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Sonali Kulkarni's first mainstream role in Hindi films.

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During rehearsals for the song So Ja Chanda, Sonali Kulkarni would pat the child actor to sleep with both hands, but during the shoot she patted him with one hand. Vidhu Vinod Chopra later asked her to touch him with both hands, because they were not getting the right feel.

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After many actresses turned the film down, Vidhu Vinod Chopra decided to choose a new face and picked Sonali Kulkarni.

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