WAS SUSHANT MEANT TO DO THESE FILMS?
As rumours become rife about how Sushant Singh Rajput lost out on certain projects, we talk to filmmakers who are accused of having dropped him, or shelved their respective films; and also get experts’ views on the kind of mental anguish ‘losing a film’ c
Ever since Sushant Singh Rajput’s mysterious death, a number of films that the actor was apparently either replaced in, thrown out of, or shelved, are making news. The list includes Sadak 2, Romeo Akbar Walter (RAW; 2019), Half Girlfriend(2017), Paani, Fitoor (2016) and upcoming ones such as Saare Jahaan Se Accha (Rakesh Sharma biopic) and NR Narayana Murthy-Sudha Murthy’s biopic, among others. While Farhan Akhtar is now believed to be on board to play the lead in Siddharth Roy Kapur’s Rakesh Sharma biopic, rumours have been rife that Akshay Kumar may well have been the reason behind Rajput’s ouster from Murthy’s biopic that is slated to be directed by Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, co-produced [and written by] by her husband, filmmaker Nitesh Tiwari.
So, even as talks continue to grow, we got in touch with a few of those films’ makers to get their take on the matter. At the same time, industry experts feel “not being able to do a film due to ulterior motives” can cause a “lot of damage” to an actor. As senior ad filmmaker Prahlad Kakkar puts it: “Losing out on a film is part-and-parcel of the business. But when you are emotionally and creatively involved in a project but lose it due to some kind of agenda or malice, it can make one feel
frustrated and helpless.”
For trade analyst Taran Adarsh, the “impact can vary”. “If a film — that an actor can’t be a part of — goes on to become a hit, he/she will feel bad to have lost out on the project. But if it doesn’t do well, then the same actor will be happy to have dodged the bullet. Since an actor’s destiny can change with just one film, every film is critical. But, for ages, we’ve seen actors turning down films or getting replaced,” he says.
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Akshaye Rathi concurs, saying
that the “impact of having missed out on a film can be positive as well as negative” “It varies from person to person,” he says. Kakkar, on his part, concludes by saying that “the impact [bad or good] may be true of every industry but things get pronounced in Bollywood as there are only so many filmmakers/ actors,” he
says.