Ranbir Kapoor didn’t want Sonakshi Sinha in Besharam, said ‘he was uncomfortable’; urged director to cast Katrina Kaif

He continued, “Katrina was not the choice. Ranbir had asked me, ‘She wants to do the film, so consider her’. I said, ‘She is not right for the part, I need a Punjaban from Delhi’. Katrina needed to work on her accent, and I wouldn’t have been able to hide it. If you see, all of her films before then had to make it clear that she was either an NRI or a foreigner, because she couldn’t speak in Hindi. It was either she had studied abroad or that she was living abroad.”

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Abhinav said that he auditioned several actors for the role of the female lead, and the list included Taapsee Pannu, Swara Bhasker, Tamannaah Bhatia, and Parineet Chopra. “I don’t have a problem with Katrina, she’s a great person and a good actress. Then, the CEO of Viacom also said that Katrina wanted to do the film, and I told him the same thing I’d told Ranbir. Katrina once came and met me also. I was recording a song at Yash Raj, and she came up to me and said, ‘You have a problem with me?’ I said I have no problems. I told her the day I have a script that requires an NRI character, I would come to her first,” he said.

Abhinav spoke about wanting to cast Sonakshi in the film, and explained, “We had decided that we will find a girl who fits the role through auditions. Pallavi Sharda auditioned, and everyone liked her, including Ranbir and his parents, and the Viacom management. She was purely there on merit, but the industry didn’t like it. Pallavi had done a small role in My Name is Khan, and the industry couldn’t tolerate a supporting actor getting the lead role in a major project over so many others. It was a coveted role, and many actors reached out to me. I wanted to cast Sonakshi initially, but Ranbir said, ‘Not Sonakshi, I’m not comfortable with her’. Now, the reason behind his discomfort you’ll have to ask him. I told him that I’m not comfortable with Katrina… But when a newcomer enters the industry, people try to sabotage them.”

In an earlier interview, also with Bollywood Thikana, Abhinav had revealed that he had no say in Sonakshi’s casting in Dabangg either. He said that he was simply told one day by Salman Khan’s team that she was playing the lead role. Abhinav has spoken at length about the unpleasant experience he had with Salman Khan and his brothers while making Dabangg. He alleged that he was mistreated on set, and that he was shortchanged when it came to payment.

In an interview with Zoom in 2024, Sonakshi said that she was rejected as a potential co-star by male stars because they felt she looked too old on screen. Sonakshi said, “In fact, I’ve had to deal with actors who are older than me who’ve said, ‘She looks older than us’. I just want to thank them. I don’t want to work with a person like you. It’s always the woman who is struggling to move past that, to push those barriers down, and to pave her way in something that should be as smooth as it is for a man. We’re all artists, at the end of the day, and for women, it shouldn’t be that much of a struggle.” Sonakshi yelled rhetorically, “Arey, main tumse 5-6 saal choti hoon!”