5 years of Raees: When Farhan Akhtar gave up the opportunity to share screen with Shah Rukh Khan for this reason

Farhan Akhtar and Shah Rukh Khan have delivered two super hits with the remake of Don and its sequel Don 2. There’s little doubt that their partnership can do wonders after these films but did you know Farhan once had the opportunity to play star alongside Shah Rukh and he turned it down.

Shah Rukh Khan played a bootlegger turned politician in the 1027 hit Raees which was bankrolled by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani’s Excel Entertainment . For the film, Farhan was initially cast as the cop we see Nawazuddin Siddiqui play the movie who proves to be the biggest thorn in Raees’ back in the film.

While Shah Rukh and Nawazuddin’s cat and mouse chase did get the film a lot of attention, Fahan had revealed that he had given up the part simply because he didn’t want to play a cop again on screen. The actor had played a cop in 2016 in the movie Wazir which also starred Amitabh Bachchan and he didn’t wish to be repetitive with his characters.

According to some reports, Farhan had offered the role of the cop ACP Pramod Majmudar to Fardeen Khan then who was on a break from acting and turned down the movie. Nawazuddin Siddiqui was later offered the film.

Apart from Shah Rukh Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Raees starred Mahira Khan as the female lead. Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub also starred in the movie as Raees’ close aide. Shah Rukh’s role in the movie was reportedly based on the Gujarat based gangster, Abdul Latif.

Raees was directed by filmmaker Rahul Dholakia.