‘Anurag Kashyap danced on top of a table after seeing the final cut of Aamir,’ recalls Rajeev Khandelwal: ‘No one willing to back a TV actor’

Rajeev Khandelwal was one of the most popular actors on television when he decided to move to films but a decade and a half ago, the lines drawn between film and television actors were not as blurry as they are now. Rajeev ultimately got his chance to make his film debut in the movie Aamir. In a recent interview, Rajeev recalled how Anurag Kashyap took the film to various producers who were not willing to back a “TV actor” but it was Anurag and Vikas Bahl, who had complete faith in the project and Rajeev’s capabilities.

In a chat with Zoom, Rajeev shared that when he got script of the film, he was just taken by it and “wondered why no so-called ‘star’ is doing it”. He shared that Anurag, who was backing the project directed by Raj Kumar Gupta, could not gather enough producers for the film as most producers were not interested in betting on a “popular TV actor”. “Anurag Kashyap went from one producer to another but they weren’t willing to back a popular ‘TV actor’ till he met Vikas Bahl,” he shared.

Rajeev Khandelwal said that he did a few workshops with director Raj Kumar Gupta and actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui. “Nawazuddin Siddiqui bhai was assigned to me for all the physical workshops which we did on the backroads of Lokhandwala,” he shared. Rajeev said that most people involved in the making of this film were first timers and recalled what he felt just before the film’s release. “Anurag danced on top of a table after seeing the final cut,” he shared and added that the film industry reacted “very favourably” to the film.

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Rajeev Khandelwal was a popular name on television because of the Ekta Kapoor television show Kahiin to Hoga that started airing in 2003. After the Balaji Telefilms show, Rajeev appeared in TV shows like Left Right Left and Time Bomb 9/11. Rajeev was last seen in the Emraan Hashmi web series Showtime.