Mumbai: Sidharth Malhotra’s performance as Captain Vikram Batra in the just-released movie Shershaah has been lauded. However, there was a possibility that initially wouldn’t have been casted for the role. At one point of time, superstar Salman Khan had requested the producer of the film Shabbir Boxwala to choose Aayush Sharma for the character of Param Vir Chakra Vikram Batra. This was claimed by the producer recently during an interaction with a certain section of the media. Incidentally, Aayush is the brother-in-law of Salman Khan.
Shabbir has been quoted as saying that Salman had approached him to cast Aayush for the role of Vikram Batra. Then it would have been the perfect launch for Aayush. However, Shabbir couldn’t select Aayush for the role as by that time he had already finalised Sidharth for the project. In fact Shabbir had also introduced Sidharth to Batra’s family and they had approved the casting of the actor for the role.
“It would have been unethical to replace Sidharth with someone else. It was a watershed moment for me when Captain Batra’s family granted me the rights. They had placed a lot of faith in me, and I didn’t want to let them down. Salman understood when I explained my dilemma. Aayush was kind, he admitted that playing a double role in his debut film might be a tough task” Shabbir said.
In due course, Aayush made his acting debut in Loveyatri, a film produced by Salman Khan Films and also starring Warina Hussain. Critics panned the film, and it did not fare well at the box office. Antim: The Final Truth is the actor’s next film which also stars Salman.