My Name Is Khan - Production - Casting and Filming

Casting and Filming

Production of the film took place in India and the United States. Filming began in Los Angeles during December 2008 and one of the locations used was UCLA. Johar next continued production in Mumbai during April 2009. During June 2009, production moved to San Francisco and the Bay Area, where they filmed a key scene at the Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose.

Shahrukh Khan and Kajol were cast in the lead roles, reuniting them after many years. The film faced a temporary setback in late December when actor Aamir Bashir was denied a visa to the United States. He was eventually replaced by Jimmy Shergill as Khan's younger brother. Although Shabana Azmi was originally cast as Shahrukh Khan's mother she left the production after his shoulder injury delayed the filming schedule. She was replaced in the role by Zarina Wahab. Tanay Chheda portrayed Shahrukh Khan's character as a child living in the Borivali section of Mumbai. Chheda was chosen because he resembles Khan and because he is recognisable to an international audience after portraying "middle Jamal" in Slumdog Millionaire. He had earlier worked with Khan in the remake of the 1970s superhit Don: The Chase Begins Again. American actor Christopher B. Duncan was chosen to portray President Barack Obama. Duncan is known for his interpretation of Obama on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Johar had difficulties finding a mosque to film in. According to actor Arif Zakaria, "I don't know if Karan tried to get permission in Mumbai. But we were to shoot in a mosque in Los Angeles and hard as Karan tried to convince the authorities that his film would not propagate anti-social values, he was denied permission We finally shot the two-day scene with Shahrukh Khan on the set of a mosque constructed at The Club in Andheri." Johar also shot for an important scene inside of the studio of CBS 5 . San Francisco's Film Commission Director Stephanie Coyote was responsible for giving permission to the crew to shoot in the film studio. While shooting for the film, Khan suffered from severe pain in the neck and headaches which were caused by the expressions and posture of Rizwan Khan. His character in the film who has Asperger's Syndrome, has a way of jutting his neck out at a particular angle and wears an expression which has his eyebrows raised in every scene. As he would shoot for hours, he'd get severe migraines. Director Karan Johar admitted that "Shahrukh's character Rizwan had to arch his eyebrows and focus his eyes on a certain place before every take. Halfway through the shooting of the film, Shahrukh developed severe headaches as result of all the pressure it would put on his head so he had to see a neurosurgeon for that."

After filming in Los Angeles was completed, Johar stated that, "in all my 11 years as a filmmaker I’ve never felt the experience to be so different. The content of My Name Is Khan is diametrically opposite to whatever I’ve done in the past." He described working with both Shahrukh Khan and Kajol again as "magic. They build an inexplicable energy on screen." Johar also stated that he was "blown away by Shahrukh who had done monumental research on his autistic character in the film. I was zapped by how much he knew about the subject."

Johar also asked Khan to co-produce the film under his production company Red Chillies Entertainment, Talking about the initiative, the director said:"we were both passionate about the subject, we said why not co-produce the film? We’ve known each other so long ... that this new initiative is just an extension of our emotions. Besides, I can never make a film without Shahrukh."