When Nana Patekar turned down Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe-starrer Body of Lies: ‘Terrorist ka role hai, nahi karna’

In a new interview, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap recalled a story that he had never told before publicly. He said that he received an email from the legendary director Ridley Scott about wanting to hire Nana Patekar for the film Body of Lies, but Nana declined the offer because he didn’t want to play a ‘terrorist’.

Anurag was speaking to The Lallantop, when he was asked why he hasn’t ever worked with Nana Patekar. He said that they’ve met often, and have discussed working together. In fact, Anurag put Nana in touch with the independent filmmaker Chris Smith who’d reached out to him for help on their film, titled The Pool. They needed someone like Nana to play a small part in the movie, and showed Anurag a picture of the actor as reference. As a long shot, Anurag decided to directly reach out to Nana himself. The film eventually went on to win an award at the Sundance Film Festival, and attracted the attention of Oscar-winning Ridley Scott, who is best known for films such as Blade Runner, Alien, Gladiator, and The Martian.

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“Ridley Scott watched The Pool, and sent me an email. He wanted Nana Patekar for Mark Strong’s role in Body of Lies. I went to Nana, told him that Ridley Scott wants him, he said, ‘Terrorist ka role hai, nahi karna’. He didn’t do it. I’ve never said this before,” Anurag revealed. Body of Lies is a 2008 spy thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe in the lead roles.

Chris Smith would go on to produce and direct some of the most popular documentaries of their respective years, including Fyre, Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond, Tiger King, Bad Vegan, and most recently, Sr. Anurag’s new film Almost Pyaar with DJ Mohabbat was released last week to mixed reviews. Ridley Scott is putting together a sequel to Gladiator as his next project, even as he awaits the release of his historical epic about Napoleon.