There’s no denying that the late Sushant Singh Rajput was one helluva talented actor. In his brief career, Rajput made a name for himself with films like MS Dhoni: The Untold Story, Sonchiriya and Kai Po Che! When news of the actor’s death hit social media on the 14th of June last year, it created a massive furore which continues till this day. Many accused the “Bollywood mafia” for denying him juicy roles and ostracising him from their supposed exclusive club. However, while it is true that Rajput was supposed to be a part of some high-budget movies, he had actually backed out of them because of scheduling issues. Here are a few films that Rajput couldn’t be a part of.
1. RAW (Romeo Akbar Walter)
This John Abraham action thriller went on to be a moderate success but Rajput was the first choice for the role. However, the actor had to recuse himself from the film due to scheduling conflicts which caused much grief to the producer Bunty Walia and director Robbie Grewal. “We had signed Sushant in February and had his dates too. His sudden exit came as a shock to us, in particular to Robbie, given that he had given his nod right away,” Bunty had told Mumbai Mirror.
2. HALF GIRLFRIEND
This film that finally released with Shraddha Kapoor and Arjun Kapoor in the lead roles has a Sushant Singh Rajput connection. The film was based on Chetan Bhagat’s novel of the same name and the author had even welcomed Rajput onboard with a tweet. However, Arjun Kapoor replaced the actor.
3. FITOOR
Rajput was supposed to star opposite Katrina Kaif in this remake of Great Expectations. The role finally went to Aditya Roy Kapur and Fitoor was a massive disaster at the Box Office despite a strong OST and great sets.
4. RAM LEELA, PADMAAVAT, BAJIRAO MASTANI
Every actor wants to star in a Sanjay Leela Bhansali movie and the ace director wanted Rajput to star in three of his highest-grossing movies. During the investigation into his death, the police had called SLB for questioning and the director had revealed that Rajput couldn’t be a part of any of these three films due to scheduling conflicts.
[Image Credit: Sushant Singh Rajput]
ML Entertainment