Karan Johar had approached Hrithik Roshan, Saif Ali Khan, Farhan Akhtar, Shahid Kapoor, Aditya Roy Kapur for Shakun Batra's 2016 film Kapoor & Sons, but all of them refused to play a homosexual character on screen. Later on, the role was played by the Pakistani actor Fawad Khan.
Directed by Shakun Batra and produced by Karan Johar under his banner Dharma Productions, the 2016 film Kapoor & Sons is one of the finest dysfunctional family dramas ever made in Bollywood. The film starred Rishi Kapoor, Sidharth Malhotra, Fawad Khan, Alia Bhatt, Ratna Pathak Shah and Rajat Kapoor in the leading roles.
Producer Karan Johar had approached multiple actors to play the character of the elder brother Rahul Kapoor for the film. They refused to play a homosexual character and refused the role. The director confirmed the same in an interview to DNA when he said, "I had offered Fawad’s part to six different actors and no one did it. No matter what reasons they gave, I felt they were afraid of playing a homosexual man on screen. Having said that, they had a reason and I didn’t judge them for it."
In a column for the Open magazine, film critic Rajeev Masand named five actors who refused Kapoor & Sons. He wrote, "As many as half a dozen actors are believed to have turned down the role of the elder brother in Shakun Batra’s recent hit Kapoor & Sons, before the makers approached Fawad Khan. Saif Ali Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar, Shahid Kapoor and Aditya Roy Kapoor were all approached. While some explicitly admitted that they didn’t want to play a character that happens to be gay, others reportedly cited different excuses."
"Farhan, whom Shakun had assisted previously, said he loved the film but didn’t see himself playing the older sibling. Of the lot, the makers say he was the most professional and upfront about his reservations. When they approached Fawad with the part, the actor agreed almost immediately after reading the script. Refreshingly, he had no inhibitions about the character’s sexuality, and much later when there was talk that the studio wanted to keep that detail out of the film for its Pakistan release, Fawad insisted that they not develop cold feet at the last minute", he concluded.
Ultimately, Fawad Khan played Rahul Kapoor in the film and his performance received immense love from the critics and audiences. In the same year 2016, the Pakistani actor was also seen in Karan Johar's directorial Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, which also featured Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.
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