Madhavan replaced me, Anurag Kashyap made me believe I had the ‘best role’ in Guru but I was ‘hurt’, recalls Arjan Bajwa

Anurag Kashyap told Arjan Bajwa that he would have the 'best role' in Guru so he was 'hurt' when that wasn't the case.

New Delhi | May 30, 2025 09:01 AM IST

3 min read

Madhavan played a significant role in Guru, and Anurag Kashyap co-wrote the film with Mani Ratnam.

Director Mani Ratnam, who is getting ready to release his next film, Thug Life, has been making movies since the 1980s. He is one of the few Indian directors who has made films across various Indian languages. His 2007 film Guru, which starred Abhishek Bachchan in the lead role, was co-written by Anurag Kashyap. In a recent interview, actor Arjan Bajwa shared that he felt he was misled by Anurag when he was cast in the film, for what he thought was a pivotal role. Arjan shared that he initially auditioned for the role that was eventually done by R Madhavan. He said that he read for another role as well and here, he was made to believe by Kashyap that this would be a substantial role in the film.

In a chat with Siddharth Kannan, Arjan shared that when he auditioned for the role of Shyam Saxena (played by Madhavan), he got a call from Anurag Kashyap, who told Arjan, “Don’t get excited but Mani sir saw your audition and really liked it.” Anurag told him it was a “great role” but after that, he didn’t hear anything from the team. “Then I got to know that Madhavan is doing it. I realised that Mani sir has launched him in Tamil so I am sure he has some bonding with him. He thinks maybe Madhavan is apt for that role. To be honest, I was quite disheartened,” he said.

Soon after this, he got another call from a member of Mani’s direction team, and they asked him to read for another role. Arjan said that this audition happened in front of Mani Ratnam, and for the first few minutes, he was completely in awe of the director. “Mani sir took a Handycam and recorded me doing it. He said ‘good’. An actor waits to hear things like that,” he recalled, and said that after this audition, he called Anurag again.

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“I called Anurag afterwards and he said it’s a great role. Anurag said I will give you the script and it is the best role. He said you will be growing old from 28 to 68. But when we were shooting, the role was shrunk. It was impactful but it was a very small role,” he said. When asked if the role was chopped on the editing table, Arjan shared that they didn’t even shoot most of what existed on paper, as far as his role was concerned.

He shared that he was “hurt” with this and added, “I was hurt with that. I don’t know what the reasons behind this were, because this happens with everyone. Maybe the director sees things differently and an actor wants to prove his mettle. So this kind of stuff happens.” Arjan played the role of Arzan Contractor in the film.

Alongside Bachchan, the film also starred Aishwarya Rai, Vidya Balan, Mithun Chakraborty.

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