How the late Pradeep Rawat convinced Aamir Khan to do ’Ghajini’

For some actors, a single role is enough to bring them lifelong fame and recognition. The late actor Pradeep Rawat—who made headlines for playing the villain in the Tamil and Telugu films 'Ghajini'—was the one who convinced Aamir Khan to play the lead role in A. R. Murugadoss' Hindi remake. The story of how he convinced Aamir is also quite wonderful.'In an old interview with Siddharth Kannan two years ago, Pradeep Rawat had detailed how Murugadoss met him on the sets of S. S. Rajamouli's film and how he got Aamir Khan involved in the film.

Pradeep Rawat reminisced, "I was already quite successful in Telugu cinema by then. After watching 'Lagaan', S. S. Rajamouli's assistant assigned an agency to find me.

I was asked to audition for Rajamouli's second film, 'Sai'. It was based on rugby, one of the toughest sports in the world. Moreover, the character was that of a college-going boy. When I was selected, Rajamouli changed the character to a goon or a mawali to match my age.'

He also said, 'When I was shooting for that film in Hyderabad, I noticed a man peeking at me from behind my makeup room door and leaving without saying anything. After this happened two or three times, I asked my assistant, 'Who is he?' Then the man himself replied, 'Sir, I am A. R. Murugadoss. I am a director.'

Pradeep Rawat said that at that time A. R. Murugadoss could not speak English or Hindi; he did not even have the personality or presence that a director has. Since Pradeep had worked with Salman Khan before, the director initially wanted Salman to play the lead in 'Ghajini'.

'Salman Khan is a bit of an angry person, so I thought he might have some problems working with A. R. Murugadoss. On the other hand, I have known Aamir for 25 years. I have never seen him shout at anyone, he never abuses anyone. So I thought of Aamir and approached him,' recalls Rawat.

Pradeep Rawat first told Aamir Khan that he wanted to show him a Tamil film. But he did not let Aamir know that he had come up with an offer to play the lead role in the beginning, even in a whisper.

Later, on the pretext of just watching the film, he showed Aamir the Tamil 'Ghajini'. Impressed by the story and character development of the film, Aamir himself expressed interest in remaking the film in Hindi. At that very moment, Pradeep Rawat revealed that its original director Murugadoss himself wanted to make the Hindi version with him—and thus the Hindi ‘Ghajini’ was born.

It is worth noting that Pradeep Rawat died at the age of 74 on Tuesday (August 4) at around 6 pm while undergoing treatment for cancer. He was shifted from Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital in Mumbai to a cancer hospital in Bhiwandi about 10 days ago for better treatment. At the time of his death, he left behind his wife and a son, Vikramaditya.