Veteran actor Mukesh Khanna recently expressed his reservations about casting Ranveer Singh as Shaktimaan in the show’s reboot despite the Bollywood star’s recent commercial success with the Dhurandhar franchise.
Speculation about Ranveer being tied to the reboot project has been going on for nearly two years. Khanna, who played the titular superhero in the original series, has been voicing his concerns about an established actor portraying the role.
During an interview with Zoom TV, Khanna said, “See why I am against this is… although he is a terrific actor, has terrific energy, he can do Dhurandhar, he can do Gully Boy, he can do Khilji.”
Khanna emphasised on the importance of appearance rather than ability for the role of Shaktimaan. “But in Shaktimaan, you need not just the actor but also the face. Like Prithviraj Chauhan should look like Prithviraj Chauhan when he stands, which Akshay Kumar did not look like in the film. They put on a wig and whatnot. When I played a historical character, it used to take me 1.5 hours just to change costumes. I used to wear a seven-inch crown,” he said.
The veteran actor also said that he might lose money if he continues to hold his ground.
“It is my loss. I am losing crores of rupees as Sony is ready to give me crores of rupees. I said, ‘Wait, I don’t want this cast.’ They are adamant, and I am also adamant. They want a star, I don’t want a star. If I am allowed, I would conduct auditions across the country to find who will become Shaktimaan. You will get publicity and also find a boy who is good-looking, simple, and kind. For me, no actor who already has an image can become Shaktimaan,” he said.
In a previous interview, Khanna had revealed that Ranveer once met him to express his interest in the role.
“It was an arranged meeting organized by Sony, where Ranveer came to convince me that he could play Shaktimaan. This wasn’t the first time he showed interest in the role.” He added that he had instead suggested Ranveer consider playing Tamraj Kilvish, the show’s iconic antagonist. “He wanted to convince me that he can play Shaktimaan. That meeting ended in no result,” he said.
Khanna further revealed that Aditya Chopra once attempted to take the reboot project.
“Ten years ago, Aditya Chopra’s team contacted me, asking if I could give them the rights to Shaktimaan. Around that time, coincidentally, a photo of Ranveer Singh wearing Shaktimaan’s costume surfaced on social media. I refused to give them the rights but proposed that they collaborate with me instead. I didn’t want them to turn it into a disco drama,” he added.
On the work front, Ranveer is currently riding high on the success of Aditya Dhar’s spy-thriller Dhurandhar 2, which went on to become the highest-grossing Hindi film of all time.