MUMBAI: Shahid Kapur is back to where he started when he first faced the arc lights. He was then 18 years old, still trying to come to terms that he was going to do a Pepsi commercial with the Kuch Kuch Hota Hai stars – Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol and Rani Mukherji. Shot by Prahlad Kakkar and choreographed by Farah Khan, Shahid woos Rani in that commercial just as he is doing the same in Dil Bole Hadippa.

Kakkar tells Businessofcinema.com, "My casting director Amita Sehgal had found this thin little boy and she had to really convince me to take Shahid for the role. On the day of the shoot, as there were so many people coming to see the stars shoot late at night, Shahid was not allowed to enter the shooting premises by the security guards."

Shahid confirmed, "For over an hour and a half I kept convincing the security guard to let me in. But he was sure that I was not part of the shoot and refused to budge from his stance."

Farah Khan, who choreographed Shahid’s steps found the actor hiding in his vanity van, inspite of repeated calls for him to report to the set. Farah said, "When I stormed into his vanity van, I saw Shahid sitting nervously with a 28 size pair of jeans as they were a size too big for him. Every time he would stand up, the jeans would fall and pool around his ankles. It was late at night and it took some time for them to get the correct size and so big stars like SRK, Kajol and Rani were made to wait for this little debutant who we later nicknamed as Ladoo Singh because of his cheeks."

It is a full circle now as Shahid romances Rani on celluloid for Yash Chopra’s Dil Bole Hadippa.