Randeep Hooda recalled how he was completely shattered and felt cheated after his film with Rajkumar Santoshi, The Battle Of Saragarhi got shelved within few days of filming.
Randeep Hooda was supposed to essay the role of Havildar Ishar Singh in Rajkumar Santoshi’s Battle Of Saragarhi. The actor was quite excited to take up this challenging role. In fact, he had lived with the character of Ishar Singh for three years and had also turned down many films as Santoshi’s film required him to have a long hair and a thick beard.
After three years of intensive research, Battle Of Saragarhi went on floors only to get shelved within 20 days of shooting. Recently, in a chat with Mashable India, Randeep revealed that he slipped into depression with his film failed to see the daylight.
The ‘Sarabjit’ actor recalled, “There were many situations in life when I thought there is nothing but darkness. I went through a big stage of depression. In fact, I did Extraction in that stage of life when I was down and out. I even thought of leaving Extraction for Saragarhi and even left films for three years for Saragarhi.”
Recalling that dark phase of his life, he shared, “I was quite affected by it. My parents won’t leave me alone. To escape from them, I would bolt my room, fearing that someone would cut my beard. Then I decided I won’t let this happen to me ever again.”
Randeep said that in hindsight, he is happy that he did Extraction because he got cheated with Battle Of Saragarhi.
For the unversed, Rajkumar Santoshi had announced Battle Of Saragarhi with Randeep Hooda in 2016. In 2018, Akshay Kumar came up with Kesari which was based on the same subject.
On the work front, Randeep will next be seen in Swatantrya Veer Savarkar which also marks his debut as a director. The film is a biopic on freedom fighter Veer Savarkar.
