Not Irrfan Khan, Manoj Bajpayee was the first choice for Ranvijay Singh’s role in Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Haasil.
Irrfan Khan left everyone mighty impressed with his wicked act in Tigmanshu Dhulia’s crime drama, Haasil, headlined by Jimmy Shergill and Hrishita Bhatt. But do you know that the late actor was not the original choice for Ranvijay Singh’s role in this film?
In a recent chat with Mashable India, the film’s director Tigmanshu Dhulia revealed that he originally wanted to cast Manoj Bajpayee in this role.
The filmmaker recalled, “I wanted to make my debut film and Irrfan was a friend. It was all destiny. There was no plotting or maneuvering. To be honest, the first person I approached for Haasil wasn’t Irrfan Khan, it was Manoj Bajpayee. Very few people know this. Manoj Bajpayee had become a star by this time as Satya had released. I was friends with him too. We all used to hangout the whole day together.”
Dhulia revealed that he gave a narration for Haasil to Manoj Bajpayee when the latter was shooting for Ghaath. However, the ‘Kaun’ actor turned down the film offer as he didn’t want to play a negative character. After this, he signed Irrfan for that role.
The director shared, “I narrated him the story of Haasil. But Manoj said he won’t play the villain’s role. It was after he refused that I approached Irrfan.”
Explaining why Manoj Bajpayee was his first choice, Tigmanshu admitted that he was being selfish, and added, “As Manoj was already a star, I thought if I will convince him to do the film, I will get producers too. And the movie will be easily made.”
Haasil, which released in 2003, revolves around a law-abiding student who gets entangled in college politics and crime, and must fight it out for himself when his friend becomes his foe.
