Recently, filmmaker Nikkhil Advani revealed that the late actor Irrfan Khan was the first choice for the film. While speaking to Film Companion, he said that it was Akshay who wanted to feature in the film.
Nikkhil said, “I once went to narrate a film to Akshay and he immediately said, ‘No this is not for me’. He asked what else I was working on. I said there is this other film that I’m not directing. A director called Raja Menon will make it, it’s based on a real story. It was Airlift. Next morning he said, why won’t you offer this to me.”
The director further added, “I said because you’ll never do it. There’s no song, the director’s earlier film was Barah Aana… the numbers just don’t add up. Also Raja wants Irrfan for this part. He said can you please speak to him, I really want to do this.”
Irrfan Khan passed away in 2020. His untimely demise shocked his fans and industry colleagues.
Meanwhile, Akshay recently wrapped the shoot of Aanand L Rai’s ‘Raksha Bandhan’ in Delhi. He will be soon seen in ‘Sooryavanshi’ with Katrina Kaif. Apart from this, he has ‘Prithviraj’, ‘Bachchan Pandey’, ‘Cinderella’ and ‘Ram Setu’ in the kitty.
