Masand: Spaced Out (Rakesh Sharma Biopic News)

After losing both Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan, the makers of Saare Jahan Se Acchathought they’d found their leading man in Vicky Kaushal a few months ago. Hot off the success of Uri: The Surgical Strike (2019), the 31-year-old actor was an exciting choice to put the story of astronaut Rakesh Sharma on the screen. But it’s no secret that Vicky is not doing the film anymore, becoming the third actor to flirt with the project before turning it down.

Saare Jahan Se Accha is a biopic of Sharma, who in 1984 became the first Indian to go to space. Ad filmmaker Mahesh Mathai became fascinated with Sharma’s story and began hammering out a script after getting a thumbs-up from the man himself. The film was to be made by former Disney India boss Sidharth Roy Kapur for his new production, and the makers agreed Aamir would be perfect to play Sharma.

Aamir thought so too and dived into preparation for the role, which included spending time with Sharma at the latter’s home in south India. But he exited the project subsequently after deciding to focus instead on a seven-part serialised retelling of the Mahabharata he was producing. Aamir recommended Shah Rukh for the film and urged SRK to take the job. But insiders say the makers realised after watching Zero (2018) that the actor would probably not want to travel to space so soon again. Which is exactly what happened.

With Vicky, the makers were relieved they had finally found an actor who was promising to do all the prep and hard work the role required. But sources reveal Vicky backed out after his closest advisers told him he shouldn’t be restricting himself to patriotic films. He had already done Raazi (2018) and Uri and was already committed to Shoojit Sircar’s Sardar Uddham Singh. His departure from the project hit the makers hard, our sources say.

And because the film has become something of a joke in the industry, the team has decided to take a break from it. Apparently, the script will no longer be circulated among actors. Kapur and Mathai have decided to distance themselves from it for now, with the intention of returning to it soon.

Best idea to be honest- shelve it for a bit.. too many biopics are on pieline anyway.. an expensive one is also not recommendable.

Let a few biopics flop hard.. then when all stop doing biopics .. try again.

The subject seemed interesting- but maybe the script is also not as great.. it CANNOT be JUST that the actors are worried about image/another subject/patriotism.. Something must be wrong for all these.. excuses to pop up..