Saif Ali Khan Refused To Even Read Bombay Velvet, Hrithik Roshan Avoided It For 2 Years, Kareena Kapoor Khan ‘Considered’ Reading It & Ranveer Singh Managed To Raise Only 40-50 Crore Once Revealed Anurag Kashyap

Anurag Kashyap’s Bombay Velvet is one of the biggest disasters Hindi Cinema has seen. The film was much awaited when it was announced owing to the coming together of three stalwarts – Ranbir Kapoor, Karan Johar, and Anurag Kashyap. However, the film was a disaster at the Box Office. But do you know, Ranbir Kapoor was not the first choice for the film? It was Saif Ali Khan, with whom Kashyap later made Sacred Games.

Saif Ali Khan rejected Anurag Kashyap’s offer to play Johnny Balraj. The film was written in 2006. Kashyap was not seen as an ideal commercial director in those days. After Saif’s rejection, Aamir Khan was offered the film, who passed it for reasons better known to him.

The film also reached Hrithik Roshan after Aamir Khan rejected it. As per reports, Hrithik kept the script of the film for 2 years but never responded. None knew if he read it or not. Anurag Kashyap, in an interview, revealed the struggles of actors rejecting the film.

As quoted by Missmalini in an interview in 2015, “The director recently revealed that at the time, he wasn’t an accomplished director so that’s probably why actors didn’t pay much heed to his scripts. He said that Saif refused to read the script, and that’s when Aamir was roped in. And although Hrithik took the script, he didn’t read it for another 2 years; while Kareena only ‘considered’ reading it.”

In another interview with PTI in 2014, Anurag Kashyap revealed, “My first choice when I wrote the film in 2006 was Saif Ali Khan. From there it went to Aamir and Hrithik. This film has gone around before landing with Ranbir. We also tried to make it with Ranveer Singh but we could raise only Rs 40 to 50 crore.”

The Manmarziyaan director further revealed, “Bombay Velvet’ was expensive from the beginning. It is the most tight-budget film of my career. It is a Rs 300 crore movie that we have made into Rs 90 crore. I wanted someone who was not only a good actor but also made it possible for me to raise that kind of money.”

Later Anurag Kashyap took digs at Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor for rejecting his film. However, he never reacted to Aamir Khan and Hrithik Roshan rejecting the film and understood that he was not credible enough at the time, he offered them Bombay Velvet.

Bombay Velvet tanked at the Box Office, and Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma had to bear the brunt of such a disaster for long. Then they started joking about the film themselves. However, Kashyap never regretted making the film and has always defended it.

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