DYK: Not Aamir Khan, but Manoj Bajpayee was the first choice for cult classic Rang De Basanti

Can you imagine Rang De Basanti (2006) without Aamir Khan?

Well that was the original vision, before Aamir heard of this film in the making and got himself involved in the project. The same was revealed by Kamlesh Pandey, one of the screenwriters on the film during a chat with Ravya Sarda for her YouTube show. Rang De Basanti was initially supposed to be a “small film”, and Manoj Bajpayee had already been signed on for the role of DJ/Chandrashekhar Azad.

Kamlesh recalled, “We had been roaming around with the script of the film for 6 years, and no one was ready to make that film. We had signed Manoj for the role that Aamir played finally. We thought we would make a small film; we didn’t have a big budget. The moment Aamir heard the script, he told us that he wanted to do the film, and he even got AR Rahman to come on the project. UTV, who had rejected the film twice in the past, immediately said yes to it”.

The core issue on the film being consistently bypassed till it caught Aamir’s eye, was that nobody was willing to put the time in to understand the script and the film’s message. Kamlesh said, “Producers thought that this was a Sholay remake from the point of view of Basanti. They used to make fun of it and ask who was going to play her, and I used to tell them with a straight face that we were thinking of casting Esha Deol. They used to take it so seriously, and I didn’t really know whether to slap these people or ignore them”.

While Manoj, given his acting prowess, would of course have done a stellar job of playing DJ in Rang De Basanti, given the film’s legacy and the kind of cementing impact it has had on the audiences — over almost 2 decades now — it’s tough to imagine anyone but Aamir leading the film.

If reading about this switcheroo has got you feeling nostalgic, Rang De Basanti is available for streaming on OTT.