Mela with Aamir Khan, Twinkle Khanna, and Faisal Khan in the lead roles, was released on January 7, 2000.
The film celebrated its 25th anniversary recently, and director Dharmesh Darshan revealed that Aishwarya Rai was the original choice to play the female lead in the film.
He told Bollywood Hungama, "Aishwarya was also my first choice for the role of Memsaab in Raja Hindustani (1996). My heart was on her. But she urgently had to go for Miss World. I didn't want to take any chances as I wanted an actress who could devote her full time to the film and Bollywood. It was her sheer grace that she didn't hold it in her heart."
The director further revealed that this was the reason why Aishwarya agreed to do the cameo scene in Mela.
He added, that her scene was opposite Faisal Khan and not Aamir, but she still agreed to do it.
Dharmesh added, "A heroine of her level had worked with Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan; you name it. Yet, she agreed and drove a couple of hours to shoot that scene."
The director also shared how he was relentlessly asked why he chose Twinkle Khanna for the film, and not Aishwarya.
He said, "I've met ladies who have told me, 'Kya sir; aapne Aishwarya ko cameo diya aur Twinkle Khanna ko itna bada role de diya!' (What sir; You gave a cameo to Aishwarya and gave such a big role to Twinkle Khanna!')"
Unfortunately, Mela was a box-office failure.
It was also one of the last projects of Twinkle Khanna before she quit the movies in 2001, with her film Love Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega.