Ramu wanted Shahrukh to play Dawood’s role in ‘Company’: When he met SRK, he rejected him considering him unsuitable, Kamal Haasan was also approached
Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma revealed that he wanted to cast Shah Rukh Khan and Kamal Haasan in the 2002 hit film ‘Company’. Varma wanted Shah Rukh to play the role of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and Abhishek Bachchan to play Chhota Rajan. He wanted to cast Kamal Haasan in the role that Mohanlal played in the film. Shah Rukh’s body language was not suitable for my film. Discussing the casting of this film on his YouTube channel RGV, Ram Gopal said, ‘My first choice for this role was Shah Rukh Khan. When I met Shah Rukh, I was very excited. I wanted him to play the role of Dawood. But after meeting him, I felt that he was very energetic. I wanted to show him silent and still and I felt that he would look very strange standing still on screen. His body language was not suitable for my film, so I had only one meeting with him. I did not meet him again.’ Ajay’s body language is naturally lazy: Ramu Ramu further said, ‘There is an actor and there is a performer. Shahrukh is a performer. He is hyperactive. So I chose Ajay Devgan for this role. His natural body language is lazy. So I found him perfect. I had offered Abhishek the role of Chandu but he was busy with 4 films at that time.’ ‘There was a problem with stardom with Kamal Haasan’ Ramu further said that Mohanlal was not his first choice for the role of Mumbai Police Commissioner in the film. Ramu said, ‘Initially I wanted to approach Kamal Haasan for this role. I even met him but here also I faced the same problem which was coming with Shahrukh. His natural stardom does not suit a realistic film. So then I approached Mohanlal for this role.’ ‘Company’ released in 2002 featured Mohanlal, Ajay Devgan and Vivek Oberoi in lead roles. Manisha Koirala, Antara Mali and Seema Biswas also played important roles in it. This was Mohanlal’s Bollywood debut film.
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