Actor Rajkummar Rao was one of the many actors who acted in the classic Gangs of Wasseypur. Rajkummar played Shamshad Alam, a small role in the film that hardly got him noticed. Meanwhile, he recently disclosed that initially, when he was first addressed for the film, he was supposed to play one of the leads.
Notably, Gangs of Wasseypur is a two-part film directed by Anurag Kashyap. Both parts were released within months of each other in 2012 to widespread critical acclaim. The films starred Manoj Bajpai, Nawazuddin Sidddiqui, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Richa Chaddha, Huma Qureshi, and Piyush Mishra in lead roles. Several actors had small roles in the film. Apart from Rajkummar, the film also featured Jaideep Ahlawat, Pankaj Tripathi, Vineet Kumar Singh, Reema Sen, Jameel Khan, Vipin Sharma, and Zeishan Quadri.
In a video shared by Netflix India, Rajkummar was interviewed by comedian Zakir Khan who spoke about Gangs of Wasseypur among other things. Rajkummar said, “After watching LSD (Love Se Aur Dhokha), Anurag sir called me and said I am making a film and come and meet me. So when I met him, there was just a story, rather a structure of a story. And at that time, the film he narrated was Faisal Khan (Nawazuddin) vs Shamshad Alam (Rajkummar). Nawaz and I went to Wasseypur and I had a small tape recorder, which I used to record people there.”
Yet, Anurag told Rajkummar that he was starting to write the formal script for the film. “After writing finished 3-4 months later,” Rajkummar recalled, “Anurag sir met me again and told me that my role had become much shorter. But I said no worries, sir. He asked me would you still do it and I said of course. I am getting a chance to work with you. And I am glad I did actually.”
Although one person noticed Rajkummar’s small role in Wasseypur. Hansal Mehta cast him in Shahid based on that, which earned Rajkummar his National Award. From there on, the actor saw commercial success as well in films like Kai Po Che, Bareilly Ki Barfi, and Stree. His latest film Monica, O My Darling released on Netflix this Friday.