Murugadoss wanted ‘short-tempered’ Salman Khan for Ghajini; Pradeep Rawat convinced him to choose Aamir Khan: ‘He did the film only because…’

Filmmaker AR Murugadoss was keen on casting Salman Khan in the Hindi remake of the film Ghajini. However, actor Pradeep Rawat, who played the villain in both the Tamil and Hindi versions, recommended Aamir Khan for the lead role.

Aamir Khan played the lead role in AR Murugadoss’ Ghajini, though the director wanted to cast Salman Khan initially. (Photo: Aamir Khan Prodcutions, Salman Khan/Instagram)

Actor Pradeep Rawat, who played the villain in the Aamir Khan-starrer Ghajini, has opened up about how director AR Murugadoss initially wanted to cast Salman Khan in the hit film. Ghajini is a remake of Murugadoss’ Tamil film of the same name. However, Pradeep thought that casting “short-tempered” Salman would cause unnecessary complications and the director wouldn’t be able to deal with it well.

Opening up about the making of the film, Pradeep said in an interview with Siddharth Kannan, “Murugadoss used to keep saying ‘I want to make it in Hindi, I want to make it in Hindi.” Pradeep further said that the filmmaker was very fond of Salman Khan and was keen on casting him in the remake of the movie.

However, Pradeep said that he didn’t feel Salman was the right choice. He said, “I thought in my mind ‘Salman is short-tempered and Murugdoss doesn’t speak in English or Hindi. He didn’t even have a personality back then.’” Having worked with Aamir in films like Sarfarosh, Pradeep thought that he would be the best choice, given his calm nature.

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Pradeep said, “I thought Aamir would be the right choice for the role because he was cool-tempered and behaves respectfully with everyone. In the past 25 years, I have not seen Aamir shout or yell at anyone. He has never disrespected anyone or used abusive language. So I thought, nature-wise, Salman cannot be handled or there would be unnecessary complications.”

Pradeep further said, “Aamir sharif hai but chalak bohot hai. Bohot hoshiyaar hai.” However, after pursuing him for six months, Aamir finally saw the film and he immediately told Pradeep that he was doing the film. The actor further mentioned that Aamir agreed to do Ghajini only because the superstar couldn’t say no to him. “And that was because I have never approached him seeking any favours.” Ghajini was released in 2008 and the film also featured Asin in a key role.

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