Sushant Singh Rajput was the first choice for 'Kabir Singh', 'Ram Leela' & more?

Late Bollywood star Sushant Singh Rajput once admitted to being the first choice of filmmakers for blockbuster hits ‘Kabir Singh’, ‘Ram Leela’, ‘Bajirao Mastani’ and others.

Once in an interview with an Indian tabloid, SSR revealed that he lost on as many as 12 big projects from celebrated Bollywood filmmakers including Ekta Kapoor, Aditya Chopra, Abhishek Kapoor, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and others.

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“I was doing many films and they are all releasing now. I don’t want to name them,” the ‘Kai Po Che!’ star had recalled. “What happens is, when I give my word to someone, and he’s delaying [not because he wants to, but because of a particular reason] and I get to understand it, I won’t ditch. So be it the biggest film with the biggest studio or the smallest film, I won’t leave another film.”

“So unfortunately, because of the two films that I was doing and that didn’t happen, I lost out on 12 films in the last one year. One film didn’t happen and the other was put off by a few months. And these films are the films that we generally talk about these days. Let’s not get into all that,” he had revealed.

While the late actor refrained from spilling any details regarding those films in the same conversation, reportedly, the two titles which he was doing were Shekhar Kapur’s ambitious project ‘Paani’ and Dinesh Vijan’s 2017 release ‘Raabta’.

‘Paani’, backed by Yash Raj Films, never got made because of the huge budget requirements which producers believed that Rajput cannot pull off. On the other hand, ‘Raabta’, co-starring Kriti Sanon was released in 2017 after many delays.

Meanwhile, the projects which Rajput lost due to these two films, include ‘Fitoor’ with Abhishek Kapoor which went to Aditya Roy Kapur later, Mohit Suri’s ‘Half Girlfriend’ finalized with Arjun Kapoor, ‘Kabir Singh’ starring Shahid Kapoor, ‘Befikre’ with Ranveer Singh and ‘Romeo Akbar Walter’ where John Abraham replaced him.

Moreover, the actor was also offered main roles in ‘Ram Leela’ and ‘Bajirao Mastani’ as well as Raja Ratan Singh in ‘Padmaavat’ by Bhansali, the parts which went to Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor.

“The industry ignored Sushant Singh Rajput”

It is pertinent to mention that Rajput committed suicide at his Bandra home in Mumbai while living alone during the lockdown. The actor was found hanging in the flat on June 14, 2020.

The case is being investigated by Mumbai Police, the Enforcement Directorate, the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Narcotics Control Bureau through different angles.

Some of the notable performances of the late actor include ‘Chhichhore’, ‘Kai Po Che!’, ‘PK’ and ‘M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story’.