Arjun Kapoor, On Being The Original Choice For Kabir Singh, Reveals Why He Backed Out

We have all fallen in love with Shahid Kapoor all over again after seeing him as the angry young rebel in Kabir Singh. The film has also done wonders for Shahid’s career and has in a way resurrected it. But now during a certain event in Mumbai, Gunday actor Arjun Kapoor has claimed to be the first choice for Kabir Singh by the producers of the film.

Arjun also states that though he was very eager to do Kabir Singh, he backed out because he did not want to indulge into an ego battle with anyone else. India Today has quoted Arjun at the event saying, “It did not reach that stage where I could choose or not. When the rights were being acquired by Ashwin and Murad, who made Mubarakan, they acquired keeping me in mind. Sandeep Vanga, the director had met Shahid and he had seen the film before and they decided to do the film together.”

Arjun further said, “The film needed Sandeep Vanga. There is a madness to that film, there is an inherent energy. It is a simple story but there was madness to the treatment. He (Sandeep) had already committed and he wanted to stick by his words and I respect that. I did not want my producers sitting around with the rights of the film and not making it out of me being in an ego tussle with anybody.”

However, Arjun is not sour by the decision even though he claims he was very keen on playing the titular role of the film. Further clarifying his stand, the Mubarakaan actor said, “Sandeep is the director of the film and he had a clearer vision of the film and without him the film wouldn’t have been what it is now. Fundamentally, films chose actors and directors but in this case the intent was right from our side and we couldn’t combine it. It doesn’t mean I left it or I did not choose it. It is complicated. There are human emotions and decisions and lot of things come into picture. The director wanted somebody else because he had committed it to someone. It was not that he said, ‘you can’t do it’. My impulse stays right as I selected the right material but then you move on in life.”

On the professional front, Arjun will next be seen in Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar alongside Parineeti Chopra and also has Ashutosh Gowarikar’s period drama ‘Panipat’ in the pipeline. The film will also be Arjun’s first period drama.

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