R. Madhavan is currently enjoying the success of his latest film, Shaitaan. Speaking about his career, Madhavan reminisced in a recent interview about his cameo performance in Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Rang De Basanti. He said that he never anticipated getting the kind of love that he did for playing Ajay Rathore in the hit 2006 movie. Speaking about his role, Madhavan revealed that he was originally supposed to play Karan, which later went to Siddharth.

Was Madhavan supposed to play Siddharth’s role in the film?

During a chat with Connect FM Canada, when Madhavan was asked about his cameo in Rang De Basanti, he revealed that he was supposed to play Siddharth’s role, Karan, because that was initially offered to him. Madhavan couldn't take up the role because he had long hair, which he could not cut as it would affect the continuity of a Tamil film.

Talking about his role and those iconic dialogues, Madhavan said that even though he was excited to play the role, he never thought it would be such an iconic character. The actor added that he spoke those big dialogues without knowing that they would be so important.

R. Madhavan on playing Ajay Rathore in Rang De Basanti

Madhavan added that nobody expected that a 10-minute-long role would become as important as it did. But the way it was written by Rakeysh Ompraksh Mehra and his team, along with the song that was dedicated to Ajay Rathore in the movie, made quite an impact. He said, “I thought the character Ajay Rathore would be like a stimulus and the rest of the film would go on.”

Rang De Basanti had a progressive team: R. Madhavan

Discussing why he accepted the role, Madhavan said, “I did it because it was a great opportunity. At the time, it was one of the most progressive sets in Hindi cinema. They had a first associate director; it was shot with live sound; it was a set I was very excited to be a part of, to better understand how the next level of cinema is being made.”

Madhavan said he was not used to an experience like that. Aamir Khan, however, was, since he had that earlier with Lagaan. But for Madhavan, it was a new experience.

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