After a lot of hullaballoo surrounding the release of Sanjay Leela Bhansali‘s Padmaavat, the film released to packed theatres and raving reviews – read ours here. While Ranveer Singh absolutely stole the show with his incredible performance, Deepika Padukone and Shahid Kapoor didn’t go unnoticed. The film was naturally a big deal for all three actors – especially for Shahid as it was his first film with SLB. Interestingly, Shahid wasn’t too keen on the film in the beginning because it already had two big actors and he thought he wouldn’t have a meaty enough role. He spoke with DNA about the same,
On a personal level, it was a huge risk for me. Everyone I know told me not to do the film. They said, ‘It already has Ranveer and Deepika, so why do you want to be the third spoke in the wheel?’ Honestly, even I believed that in the beginning. I thought to myself, it must be a guest appearance. Why would Bhansali sir suddenly think about it two months after the other star cast was announced? But I’m such a huge lover of his work that I had to meet him to try and understand what was going on. He insisted on coming home. When Sanjay sir came, he just looked at me and told me what was the role. He asked me, ‘Why do you think that the negative character is the only character that matters? Even the positive character can be good.’
He continued…
He assured me that I would be happy at the end of the experience and I said, ‘Yes’ to the project. I didn’t even read the script. I wanted to work with him on the basis of that trust. However, 10 days before filming, he told me, ‘If you don’t read the script, I won’t start the shoot because tomorrow I don’t want you to say, this is not the way I thought it would be’. I read the script and realised why he chose me and not a newcomer. I understood he wanted a recognised face of a certain value to play this role.Look how everything falls into place at the end of the day! This will go down as one of Shahid’s most memorable roles. :)Have you watched Padmaavat yet? Tell us what you thought.