Actor Arjun Kapoor said on Saturday that he was considered for the lead role in the box office smash hit Kabir Singh, but due to a complicated situation, he could not do the film. Kabir Singh was eventually played by Shahid Kapoor, and went on to make more than Rs 275 crore.
Arjun said that while the producers had him in mind when they bought the rights to Arjun Reddy, director Sandeep Reddy Vanga had already committed to Shahid Kapoor.
He said at an event in Mumbai, according to India Today, “It did not reach that stage where I could chose or not. When the rights were being acquired by (producers) Ashwin (Varde) and Murad (Khetani), who made Mubarakan, they acquired keeping me in mind. Sandeep Vanga, the director had met Shahid and he had seen the film before and they decided to do the film together.”
Arjun added that Sandeep’s vision for the film was the key to its success.
He said, “The film needed Sandeep Vanga. There is a madness to that film, there is an inherent energy. It is a simple story but there was madness to the treatment. He (Sandeep) had already committed and he wanted to stick by his words and I respect that. I did not want my producers sitting around with the rights of the film and not making it out of me being in an ego tussle with anybody.”
Arjun added, “Sandeep is the director of the film and he had a clearer vision of the film and without him the film wouldn’t have been what it is now. Fundamentally, films chose actors and directors but in this case the intent was right from our side and we couldn’t combine it. It doesn’t mean I left it or I did not choose it. It is complicated. There are human emotions and decisions and lot of things come into picture. The director wanted somebody else because he had committed it to someone. It was not that he said, ‘you can’t do it’. My impulse stays right as I selected the right material but then you move on in life.”
Kabir Singh defied poor critical reviews and controversy and made Rs 275 crore at the domestic box office, making it the year’s highest grossing Bollywood film. Arjun signed off by praising Shahid’s performance.
“Shahid is a fantastic choice and he has done it fantastically,” Arjun said. “He is a fantastic actor. The film has fine Rs 275 crore.”