In a recent interview with Faye D'Souza, Don director Farhan Akhtar shared that Aamir Khan's role as Akash Malhotra was originally offered to Akshaye Khanna. He also mentioned how Akshaye stepped aside for the sake of the movie.

Akshaye Khanna almost played Aamir Khan's role in 'Dil Chahta Hai'

Farhan Akhtar recounted, “I have experienced true grace from Akshaye Khanna. When I met him for Dil Chahta Hai, I had offered him the role of Akash, which Aamir ended up doing… When I approached Akshaye at that point, I wanted to cast two other younger actors, so I went to Hrithik Roshan and Abhishek Bachchan, who were just one film old at that time. But they had other plans, and that didn't happen, so I had to go for the slightly older generation of actors for Dil Chahta Hai.”