Not Shahid Kapoor, but Dhurandhar star Ranveer Singh was the first choice for Kabir Singh; netizens say ‘thank god…’

TWo years after winning black maria with bouldered Aur ranee Kii Prem Kahaani (2023), Ranveer Singh made a mind-blowing comeback to the atomic number 47 test with Dhurandhar. He dropped jaws with his unbelievable transformation, leaving a lasting impact through his never-seen-before avatar as an undercover agent. Well, with the craze of Dhurandhar rising each day, Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s old interview calling Ranveer the first choice for Kabir Singh (2019) has resurfaced online, garnering shocking reactions from netizens. In this interview, the director revealed that after Ranveer rejected the film for being ‘too dark’, Kabir Singh went to Shahid Kapoor. A few years ago in an interview with iDream Media, Sandeep Reddy Vanga opened up about his Bollywood directorial debut film Kabir Singh, which was a remake of his Telugu film Arjun Reddy (2017). The filmmaker shared, “I was continuously getting calls from Mumbai to do the remake. First, it was pitched to Ranveer Singh. I wanted to do it with him. But finally, he decided he will not do it, because it was too dark for him at that time.” Talking about Shahid Kapoor, who ended up headlining the film opposite Kiara Advani, Sandeep shared, “Shahid’s track record was a concern; none of his solo films had done ₹100 crore then, his highest was ₹65 crore. They used to say ₹55 crore, ₹65 crore is the kind of business Telugu movies do. ‘Why are you doing it with this guy? If it was Ranveer, the box office would be higher’. But I was always sure about Shahid, he’s a fantastic actor.” Well, even though this is a resurfaced interview, netizens had a lot to say about it. For instance, a social media user shared, “I am sure he (Ranveer) regretted rejecting this role because after the success of Animal he spoke for 40 minutes with Vanga post Animal's success even writing paens for it,” whereas a fan claimed, “But that doesn’t mean that he would want to do that kind of movie. One can be socially responsible but also appreciate someone’s art and conviction. Animal storyline was shit. But Vanga conviction as director was something that was appreciated back then. Even technicality , presentation and music was appreciated.” A netizen opined, “Thank god it never happened,” whereas another comment read, “This is an old news from 2019. At that time Ranveer had already signed 83 , jayeshbhai and didn’t want to do back to back toxic characters post Khilji. Vanga and Ranveer are still cordial with each other.” A hopeful fan also wrote: “There is high possibility they will collab now!”Well, Sandeep loved Dhurandhar. In his review of the film, the filmmaker lauded Ranveer for disappearing into his character effortlessly. Meanwhile, Ranveer thoroughly enjoyed watching Sandeep’s film Animal (2023) starring Ranbir Kapoor. So a future collaboration between the actor and director does not seem impossible. What do you think?