Mumbai: Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap is currently gearing up for the release of his next movie, ‘Nishaanchi’, which stars Vineet Kumar Singh in the lead role.
Days ahead of the scheduled September 19 release, Anurag revealed that the film was earlier offered to Sushant Singh Rajput.
The filmmaker further disclosed that Sushant not only turned down the offer, but also stopped responding to him after signing two movies, ‘Dil Bechara’ and ‘Drive’, with Dharma productions.
“Actors have been interested in it but it never hit home with me with anyone. I said I will make it the right way. This was the film that I, at one point, wanted to make with Sushant (Singh Rajput). And then he got two very big films – Dil Bechara and Drive – they were both with Dharma earlier. Then my film was on a backburner, then I was also… then he stopped responding, so I then moved away. It was announced with him back in 2016,” Anurag told Galatta Plus.
In 2020, Anurag had claimed that Sushant dropped out of ‘Hasee Toh Phasee’ because he got offers from big production houses, such as YRF and Dharma Productions.
“YRF called him and said, ‘We’ll give you a deal. You do Shuddh Desi Romance.’ Sushant, who used to sit in my office with Mukesh (Chhabra) and all of us used to sit together, he signed up with YRF and dropped Hasee Toh Phasee, a film of an outsider, because usko YRF ka validation chahiye tha (he wanted validation from YRF). It’s with every actor, so I am not holding any grudges,” Kashyap was quoted as saying by NDTV.
Sushant made his Bollywood debut with ‘Kai Po Che!’ in 2013.
He featured in several other films like ‘Shuddh Desi Romance’ (2013), ‘PK’ (2014), the biopic of ‘M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story’ (2016), ‘Kedarnath’ (2018), ‘Chhichhore’ (2019), and ‘Dil Bechara’ (2020), which was his last film.
The actor was found dead in his Mumbai apartment on June 14, 2020, under mysterious circumstances.
