The habit of Bollywood filmmakers of experimenting with their movie cast has cost them many times. And this habit of experimenting shows up mostly in the spin-off or sequel part of any blockbuster and cult classic movie. If a movie gets hit or does great business at the box office, the filmmakers come up with the sequel part of the movie. Many times, without thinking about the popularity of the lead character, Bollywood filmmakers replace the lead actor just to hype up the franchise. Take a look at the top 8 actors who were replaced by the sequels or spin-offs of their hit films.
1. Akshay Kumar replaces Arshad Warsi in Jolly L.L.B. 2: Looking at the buzz around the original Jolly L.L.B. featuring Arshad Warsi, the makers decided to take the franchise forward and came up with the second part of the movie. But this time, they replaced Arshad Warsi, who not just put life into the story but also drove the movie, with Bollywood star Akshay Kumar.
2. Parineeti Chopra replaces Kareena Kapoor in Golmaal Returns: Undoubtedly, Golmaal is one of the highest-grossing movies of the industry, and credits to director Rohit Shetty comes up with something new every time. Last Rohit Shetty came up with a whole new lead actress, instead of fan-favorite Kareena Kapoor, he cast Pareenti Chopra.
3. Salman Khan replaces Saif Ali Khan in Race 3: The reason why Race 3 was not able to impress the audience was the void created by the replacement of Saif Ali Khan. May it be race 1 or race 2, Saif Ali Khan held the franchise tight. But in 3rd installment when Salman Khan replaced him, the franchise saw a sudden downfall.
4. John Abraham replaces Akshay Kumar in Welcome Back: Welcome started a whole new genre of comedy movies and the sequel movie of it was supposed to fall in the same genre but something unexpected happened. While the whole cast held the story tight, the need for Akshay Kumar’s comic timing kicked the house of cards down.
5. Manish Paul replaced Ali Zafar in Tere Bin Laden's sequel: The fault doesn't necessarily lie with Paul, who on paper does seem like an apt replacement. However, the film lacked the heart and soul of the original film. Having a not so memorable script to work on, probably wasn't the best choice either.
6. Madhuri Dixit replaces Vidhya Balan in Dedh Ishqiya: Vidya Balan who was the key highlight of Ishqiya collected a ton of applauds for her performance in the movie. But to make the movie a notch higher, the makers replaced her with Madhuri Dixit in the sequel of the movie.
7. Abhishek Bachchan replaced Saswata Chatterjee in Bob Biswas: Even the internet found it perplexing to understand why Saswata was replaced when his performance as the assassin was why a spin-off was even possible. And while Abhishek Bachchan did understand the assignment, his version of the character was just mild and the script simply didn't allow him to have an intimidating aura.
8. Akshay Kumar replaced Emraan Hashmi In Once Upon A Time In Mumbai: Emraan Hashmi had received a lot of critical acclaim for his role in the first film, so it had never made any sense to replace him, to begin with. That said, Hashmi might have rejected the part himself after reading the script he had to work with. Akshay Kumar was just over the top playing a character that was already an eccentric character.
