Did you know Shah Rukh Khan was offered Abhishek Bachchan’s Raavan? Here’s why he declined

Shah Rukh Khan has revealed that he was offered to star in Mani Ratnam’s Raavan, but had to decline because of multiple reasons. The film eventually starred Abhishek Bachchan and his wife, Aishwarya Rai.

“I enjoyed working with Mani Ratnam. It was fun. He wanted me to do Raavan. But I was caught up then. Also, it was bilingual. I found it difficult to do that,” Shah Rukh told Filmfare. SRK had previously starred in the acclaimed filmmaker’s 1998 film, Dil Se.

More recently, the actor has reportedly dropped out of the upcoming biopic of Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian to travel in space. While he was never confirmed to have signed on to the role, it was widely believed that the film would be his follow-up to the box office disappointment, Zero.

In the Filmfare interview, Shah Rukh said that despite the box office failure of Zero, he’d want to work with director Aanand L Rai again, but this time in an action film. The other filmmakers on his wish list include Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Rajkumar Hirani, who was recently accused of sexual harassment by a colleague on Sanju. “Aanand sir is someone I’d like to work with again. But I want to make an action film with him. Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s fun. It’s been a long time since I did his kind of film. He had asked me to do one but I was busy with Zero. Amongst the new people, Rajkumar Hirani would be nice to work with,” Shah Rukh said.

Also read: Rajkummar Rao says the era of Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan will never come again

Raavan was released in Tamil and Hindi in 2010, and also starred Vikram. While the Hindi version bombed at the box office, the Tamil version was a hit.

Shah Rukh’s recent spate of films have underperformed at the box office. The actor is reportedly returning to a familiar space with the third instalment of the Don franchise next.

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