Rishi Kapoor: ‘I was Not a Saleable Star’ on Losing Drishyam to Ajay Devgn

After a long sabbatical from the movies, Rishi Kapoor will soon be seen in Jeethu Joseph's The Body with Emraan Hashmi and Sobhita Dhulipala. He believes the audience today is more accepting of seeing senior actors in prominent roles on screen.

Talking about his character in his upcoming project, he reveals that it is a different scenario today. He says his director Joseph made a film with him and Emraan Hashmi where they both are playing important roles in the film. “Today, it has become possible for me to do an important role which needs a senior actor," Rishi told PTI. 

Rishi stated that it is a welcome change that actors of all ages are welcome on the screen because the audience wants it. "They don't want to only see dancing and action. Today actors like me have got work because of this change," he added.

The veteran actor also reveals that Joseph who had helmed the Malayalam thriller "Drishyam", was keen to cast him in the Hindi remake, which ultimately featured Ajay Devgan. "Jeethu had directed the original 'Drishyam' and at that point of time -- I know this because the director told me -- he wanted me to work in the Hindi version. If you see the Tamil version, it has Kamal Haasan. It was supposed to be a senior hero and not a junior... it was meant to be a senior man,” reveals Rishi.

However, he did not make it through the film, which passed onto Ajay Devgn later. "But I was not a saleable star. I couldn't get the audiences in so obviously they would not make the film with me," Rishi said.

Besides, he also picks up the casting controversy around Taapsee Pannu and Bhumi Pednekar starrer Saand Ki Aankh. Stating that the makers could have taken age-appropriate artistes as they would have looked the part, Rishi Kapoor mentioned, "They had a controversy in 'Saand Ki Aankh', about the age. These two girls are young but they could've easily taken two senior actors and they would have looked the part more if not anything else.”

Taapsee, who played an elderly sharpshooter in the film had reacted to the casting controversy saying that as actors she should be allowed to portray all kinds of roles, irrespective of the character's age.

"I will do one thing, I will stop acting, and only play characters of my age and girls from Delhi. We are actors, so should we stop acting? As an actor, I will sometimes play characters of different ages. We should stop being camera actors, I think. I know it's not an easy visual, as these women pick up guns at the age of 60, and the film showcases their story from half of their current ages," the actress said.

While Rishi’s views clash with Taapsee’s over casting age-appropriate actors in films, the veteran actor says that the best part about the new age cinema is that even the audience wants to see different, newer stories on screen.