Shakun Batra’s Kapoor & Sons didn’t just perform well at the Box Office but it also managed to send out an important message about LGBTQ+ rights without sounding preachy. The film starred the who’s who of Bollywood including Alia Bhatt, Sidharth Malhotra, the late Rishi Kapoor and Pakistani actor Fawad Khan. Now, actor Arjun Kapoor has revealed that he was keen on playing a role in Kapoor & Sons and even called up Batra but it didn’t pan out. The role he wanted was that of a closeted gay novelist which was finally played by the talented Fawad Khan. Producer Karan Johar had earlier revealed that he had offered Fawad’s role to six other actors who turned it out for obvious reasons.
“Not a lot of people know this but I can confess this now here. I had called up Shakun Batra when Kapoor & Sons was stuck for a while and I had said I would want to do Kapoor & Sons. At that point of time, obviously, Shakun didn’t see the casting hitting the spot,” Arjun Kapoor said during a Clubhouse session. “I wanted to play Fawad’s role. I knew they were getting stuck with that,” he added.
The actor also said that he still teases Shakun Batra about not being offered the film. “I was never offered the film, I had just heard that the film was being cast but it was not proving to be an easy exercise. And I know Shakun personally, so I called him up and said, ‘I would love to read and I feel I can play that role also. I have no qualms about playing either/or, wherever you see me fit, but I would like to work with you.’ I keep making fun of him, ‘Tune Arjun Kapoor ko nahi liya but Arjun Kapoor ka naam le liya (You didn’t take Arjun Kapoor in your film but you took Arjun Kapoor’s name).’ Because Sidharth Malhotra ended up being called Arjun Kapoor in the film,” he said.
[Image Credit: Arjun Kapoor]
ML Entertainment