Not Manoj Bajpayee, Hansal Mehta says he initially wanted to cast Govinda in Aligarh: ‘I don’t know what happened…’

Filmmaker Hansal Mehta shared that he wanted to cast Govinda for his 2015 film Aligarh. However, the casting didn't materialise and Manoj Bajpayee eventually portrayed the lead role in his film.

By: Entertainment Desk

Chennai | September 26, 2023 04:45 PM IST

3 min read

Govinda was thefirst choice for Aligarh. Manoj Bajpayee ended up doing the role in the film. (Pic: Govinda/Instagram)

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Hansal Mehta is currently busy with the promotions of his upcoming web series Scam 2003. During his recent interview, he shared interesting insights into his casting choices for past projects. He disclosed that he initially wanted to cast Govinda for the role of Professor Ramchandra Siras in his 2015 film Aligarh. However, the casting didn’t materialise, and Manoj Bajpayee eventually portrayed the character in the film.

Revealing the same, Hansal told Lallantop, “Sometimes when you think of an actor while writing a script, you get stuck on that actor. It has happened to me before when an actor refused to do a project that I had written keeping him in my mind. So, in that case I had to leave the story completely or recalibrate it and make it years later. This happened to me during Aligarh. When I sat with casting director Mukesh Chhabra for Aligarh, I told him, ‘Yaar, let’s talk to Govinda.’ He told me let’s see. I don’t know what happened but that casting didn’t happen. Then Mukesh told me to talk to Manoj Bajpayee.”

Aligarh was based on the life of Dr Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras, a Aligarh university professor on whom a sting operation was carried out to determine his sexual orientation.

During the interview, Hansal also shared an interesting anecdote about how he selected Rajkummar Rao for the role of Shahid Azmi in his 2012 National Award-winning film Shahid. “I was thinking of casting a big actor in Shahid, thinking we will make more money but nobody wanted to work with me at that time. Then Mukesh Chabbra introduced me to Rajkummar. We connected so well that within 10 minutes of meeting him, I told Rajkummar that you are doing my film,” he said.

Also read | Hansal Mehta praises Kangana Ranaut’s talent, says there are aren’t a lot of actresses like her in India: ‘Despite our differences..’

Furthermore, Hansal compared the characters of the 1999 film Shool and Jawan, emphasizing how each generation continues to seek an iconic figure capable of solving the nation’s problems. He said Shool’s character of Samar Pratap Singh and Jawan’s Vikram Rathore and Azad are all idealistic characters.

“I keep looking for Samar Pratap. We are searching for a Samar Pratap, which is why many actors who started auditioning after the 90s emulate Samar Pratap’s speech. Why is that? Because every generation looks for Amitabh Bachchan’s angry young man avatar, even in Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan you see that. Somewhere we all are looking for a person who will bring a change in this economy. But that is very idealistic. I think I am that person. I want to be Samar Pratap through my stories,” he said.

Hansal Mehta’s Scam 2003: The Telgi Story is inspired by the real-life case of stamped paper counterfeiting conducted by Abdul Karim Telgi in the early 2000s. The series is based on Sanjay Singh’s book Telgi Scam: Reporter’s ki Diary and is the second installment in the Scam franchise, following Scam 1992.

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