Salman Khan was the first choice for AR Murugadoss’ Ghajini and not Aamir Khan? Pradeep Rawat reveals why the ‘short-tempered’ actor didn’t get cast

Ghajini is one of the best performances Aamir Khan has delivered to date. The 2008 action-thriller – directed by AR Murugadoss, created the 100 Crore Club in Bollywood by becoming the first ever Hindi film to cross the ₹100 crore mark domestically. But did you know, the maker wanted Salman Khan to play Ghajini and not Aamir? 

During a recent interview, Pradeep Rawat – the actor who played the villain in both the Tamil and Hindi versions, spoke up about the casting. Read on to know why the ‘Dabangg’ actor didn’t land the part. 

Salman Khan was to play Ghajini? 

In an interview with Siddharth Kannan, Pradeep Rawat, revealed Salman Khan was not fit for the role. He said, “AR Murugadoss used to keep saying, ‘I want to make it (Ghajini) in Hindi, I want to make it in Hindi…’ I thought in my mind ‘Salman is short-tempered and Murugadoss doesn’t speak in English or Hindi. He didn’t even have a personality back then.'”

Pradeep, who worked with Aamir Khan in Sarfarosh, felt he was better suited for the role as he had a ‘cool’ demeanour. He said, “I thought Aamir would be the right choice for the role because he was cool-tempered and behaves respectfully with everyone. In the past 25 years, I have not seen Aamir shout or yell at anyone. He has never disrespected anyone or used abusive language. So I thought, nature-wise, Salman cannot be handled or there would be unnecessary complications.”

About Ghajini

Released in 2008, Ghajini is a remake of AR Murugadoss’ Tamil-language action thriller of the same name. It starred Aamir Khan, Asin Thottumkal and Jiah Khan along with Pradeep Rawat playing the titular antagonist. The film was the the highest-grossing Indian film of 2008 and collected over Rs 230 crores.

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