Randeep Hooda says he slipped into depression after Battle of Saragarhi got shelved: ‘My parents won’t leave me alone, I feared someone would…’

Speaking about the three years that he gave to Santoshi’s film, Randeep Hooda told Mashable India, “There were many situations in life when I thought there is nothing but darkness. I went through a big stage of depression. In fact, I did Extraction in that stage of life when I was down and out. I even thought of leaving Extraction for Saragarhi and even left films for three years for Saragarhi.”

But Hooda is happy that he did Extraction because he got “cheated” with Saragarhi. The actor further shared, “I was quite affected by it. My parents won’t leave me alone. To escape from them, I would bolt my room, fearing that someone would cut my beard. Then I decided I won’t let this happen to me ever again.”

#RandeepGoesToWar as #HavaldarIsharSingh! #BattleOfSaragirhi #1897 pic.twitter.com/0VdDSjMZNb

— Randeep Hooda (@RandeepHooda) August 1, 2016

Filmmaker Rajkumar Santoshi announced Battle of Saragarhi in 2016 with Randeep Hooda in the lead role of Havildar Ishar Singh. The same role was played by Akshay Kumar in his 2018 film Kesari. Akshay announced the film in 2018 and released it in the same year. But Randeep’s efforts went in vain.

The actor, who has starred in Bollywood films such as Jannat 2, Highway, Sultan, and Kick, among others, is now looking forward to the release of his film Veer Savarkar. He plays the titular role of Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in the movie, which is helmed and co-produced by him.