Aamir Khan, Salman Khan remember Pradeep Rawat: ‘Ghajini wouldn’t have worked without him’

Remembering Rawat’s performance in Ashutosh Gowariker’s Lagaan, Aamir added, “Earlier, in ‘Lagaan,’ he brought his own flavor to Deva Singh Sodhi. I don’t think anyone could have played Sodhi with such swag. He was a versatile actor. It’s sad to hear of his passing.”

ALSO READ: When Pradeep Rawat cried recalling cancer battle, 6 heart blockages: ‘Walked through fire’

Salman Khan remembers Pradeep Rawat

Salman Khan also remembered the late actor in a social media post with a photo. He shared, “Shared many good moments with you brother… May you rest in peace.”

Salman Khan Instagram Story

Pradeep Rawat once revealed how Aamir Khan came on board Ghajini

The admiration between the two actors was mutual. In a 2024 interview with Siddharth Kannan, Rawat had recalled playing a key role in bringing Aamir Khan on board for the Hindi remake of Ghajini.

After the Tamil blockbuster became a massive success, director A.R. Murugadoss wanted to remake it in Hindi and repeatedly asked Rawat to help him approach leading Bollywood actors.

“Murugadoss kept requesting me to help him make the film in Hindi. He would say, ‘You know Salman Khan and Aamir Khan. Please talk to them.’ I said, ‘Sure, why not?’ When the film became such a huge success, I thought, why not help him? My selfish motive was that I would get to play the role in Hindi as well,” Rawat had said.

While Murugadoss was initially keen on Salman Khan, Rawat believed Aamir was the right choice.

“I felt Aamir Khan would be the right choice because he is calm and always behaves well with people. I have never heard of Aamir Khan misbehaving with anyone.”

According to Rawat, he kept urging Aamir to watch the Tamil film for months.

“Every time I met him, I would ask only one thing: ‘Have you watched the film?’ If Ghajini was made in Hindi, it was because I persuaded him to watch it. He could not say no to me. After six months, he finally watched the film. After watching the first half, he said, ‘I am doing this film.'”

The late-night call that led to Lagaan

Rawat had also shared how he landed Lagaan, revealing that Aamir personally called his home late one night to offer him the role. His family initially assumed it was a prank call until Sarfarosh writer and creative director Uma Shankar Pathak confirmed that it was indeed Aamir on the line.

By the time Rawat returned home in the early hours of the morning, his family was waiting excitedly to tell him that Aamir wanted to cast him in his next film.

He eventually played Deva Singh Sodhi, the fearless former Sikh sepoy who joins Bhuvan’s cricket team.

About Pradeep Rawat

Pradeep Rawat’s acting career spanned more than four decades across Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Bhojpuri, Bengali and Nepali cinema. Although he began acting in the early 1980s, he first became a household name for playing Ashwatthama in B.R. Chopra’s iconic television series Mahabharat.

He later won praise for portraying Deva Singh Sodhi in Lagaan before cementing his place as one of Indian cinema’s most formidable screen villains with Sye and Ghajini.

Over the years, he built an extensive filmography that included Sarfarosh, The Hero: Love Story of a Spy, Stalin, Rowdy Rathore, Veeram, 1: Nenokkadine, Sarrainodu, Nene Raju Nene Mantri, Aayirathil Iruvar, Market Raja MBBS, Miss Match, Singh Is Bliing, Gulu Gulu and Chhaava.