Filmmaker Hansal Mehta is currently basking in the success of his latest web series ‘Scoop.’ In a recent interview, the director recalled how at the time of making his 2012 film ‘Shahid,’ producers were reluctant to cast Rajkummar Rao as the lead. However, he managed to convince them as he was sure of the actor.
‘Shahid’ was based on the life of lawyer and human rights activist Shahid Azmi, who was assassinated in 2010. Both Rao and Mehta won National Awards for the film.
In an interview with Humans of Bombay, Hansal said, “I found Shahid Azmi’s story and my life restarted. Basically, I found my voice again and my muse in finding that voice was Rajkummar. Shahid, the script was sent to a lot of stars, and somehow either the star did not want to work with me, or if the star wanted to work with me, he wanted to change the way Shahid was written, change the narrative completely. I put my foot down. I said, ‘Either it is this or it’s nothing’.”
"And in that process, Mukesh Chabbra, Anurag (Kashyap) just threw Rajkummar my way. They kept saying that meet Rajkummar. I said ‘I can’t meet him. What will I do with him?’. There was no money. The producer said, ‘Anurag is going to send Rajkummar to you. I’m not funding it. I’m not putting money in for Rajkummar’. He was very new. He had just done ‘Love, Sex Aur Dhokha.’"
"They said have chai with him right now, he’s standing outside your office. He walks in, and in half an hour, I mean, there was something. I felt the right energy. I felt I connected to him and I saw honesty and hunger. He said he wanted to prove it. Shahid was a dream role and he recognised that…”
Hansal also said that before meeting the producer, he made a poster of ‘Shahid’ with Rajkummar first. The producer had said after looking at the poster, “Poster is cool, but who is this fellow?” The director then told him to watch his then-upcoming film ‘Ragini MMS,’ which convinced him on the acting skills of the actor.
Mehta and Rao collaborated on three more projects after Shahid, including ‘City Lights,’ ‘Aligarh’ and ‘Omerta.’ Rajkummar was last seen in Anubhav Sinha's ‘Bheed.’ He recently won the Filmfare Award for Best Actor for his work on ‘Badhaai Do.’