Actor Babil Khan on Saturday confirmed that he is no longer a part of filmmaker Sai Rajesh’s upcoming project due to “unforeseen circumstances”. The announcement came just days after the 26-year-old actor faced backlash over a now-deleted Instagram video in which he had accused several Bollywood celebrities — Ananya Panday, Shanaya Kapoor, Raghav Juyal, Siddhant Chaturvedi and Arjun Kapoor — of being “rude”.
Both Babil and Sai Rajesh announced the end of their collaboration via Instagram posts. Babil was reportedly cast in the Hindi remake of Sai Rajesh’s Telugu film Baby, originally starring Vaishnavi Chaitanya, Anand Deverakonda and Viraj Ashwin in the lead roles.
In his post, Babil wrote, “With a lot of grit, passion, and mutual respect, Sai Rajesh sir and I both got along on this journey of creating magic together. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances things didn't go ahead as everyone had planned.”
Babil added that he would like to take some time off from work at the moment. “Since I will be taking some time off currently, I wish the best to Sai Rajesh sir and the film team on their future journey. I know there is immense love between us, and we will meet soon in the future and create magic together,” he continued.
In his post, Sai Rajesh heaped praise on Babil, calling him “one of the most talented and hardworking actors” he has encountered. He also appreciated Babil’s decision to focus on self care first.
“Babil is one of the most talented and hardworking actors I have met in my life. However I have to accept this unfortunate reality of the situation. After spending time with Babil while prepping, I was very happy to be working with such a talented actor...I will still always cherish the experience of seeing him perform in front of me ...I will miss my Hero. I respect his decision of self care first, and wish him all the best and send him all the love in the future. I know we both will create that magic together for sure,” reads Sai’s post.
Earlier this month, Babil deactivated his Instagram account shortly after he shared a series of videos on his Instagram Stories in which he broke down into tears and called out several Bollywood stars for their alleged rudeness.
Though Babil later deleted the videos, the clips had already gone viral on social media.
In one of the videos Babil is heard saying, “Bollywood is the most fakest, fakest, fakest industry that I’ve ever ever been a part of. But there are few people that want Bollywood to be better...I got to show you so much more, so much more, so much more. I have so much more to give you."
"What I mean to say is that I just want you guys to know that there are people like Shanaya Kapoor, Ananya Panday and Arjun Kapoor and Siddhant Chaturvedi and Raghav Juyal...There are so, so many more names. Bollywood is so f****ed. Bollywood is so, so rude,” the 26-year-old actor continued.
Later, Babil’s mother, actress-writer Sutapa Sikdar, issued a statement clarifying that Babil was having a difficult day.
“Over the past few years, Babil Khan has earned immense love and appreciation for his work, as well as for his openness about his mental health journey. Like anyone else, Babil is allowed to have difficult days and this was one of them. We want to reassure all his well-wishers that he is safe and will be feeling better soon,” reads the statement Sutapa shared on her Instagram Story on Sunday.
Sutapa also requested social media users to refrain from misinterpreting Babil’s words.
Later, Babil reactivated his account and claimed that the videos were "extremely misinterpreted".
"Thank you so much. The video was extremely misinterpreted, I was trying to show support to @ananyapanday @shanayakapoorO2 @gouravadarsh @arjunkapoor @raghavjuyal @arijitsingh. I genuinely don't have the energy to indulge more but I do this as responsibility for my peers that I truly admire (sic)" he wrote.
His post was shared by Ananya Panday, Raghav Juyal, Siddhant Chaturvedi and Adarsh Gourav.
Sai Rajesh later shared a strongly worded note on Instagram, criticising Babil’s team and expressing frustration over how the situation was handled. “It feels like only those whose names were mentioned in his video deserve respect — and the rest of us are just fools for standing by him all this while,” he wrote.
Babil responded in the comments, saying the post had broken his heart. He revealed that he had given two years of his life to Sai Rajesh’s film and had endured both physical and emotional strain for the role. “I lived in filth just to make sure sir @sairajesh is happy with the character... I had bugs in my beard because he needed that. I gave him my laughter while I held back my tears. I slit my f**** wrist for him,” he wrote.
On the work front, Babil is known for his performance in the Netflix series The Railway Men: The Untold Story of Bhopal 1984. He also starred in Anvita Dutt’s Qala alongside Triptii Dimri and Swastika Mukherjee. Elder son of the late actor Irrfan Khan, Babil Khan recently starred in Amit Golani’s ZEE5 cyber thriller Logout.
