British Pakistani star Riz Ahmed is busy in marking his territory well known in the Hollywool industry with tremendous performances almost bagging an Oscar as well. Seems like before his Hollywood career, he was about to land some important roles in Bollywood as well.
Bollywood screenwriter Sudip Sharma has hit five years of the film Udta Punjab. On the marking of five years he opened up about the role of Tommy Singh, played by none other than Shahid Kapoor.
While talking about the role, he said that before Shahid it was actually Riz Ahmed that they were considering for the role.
“We also dabbled with the idea of Riz Ahmed at one point of time. We never thought of a Bollywood actor for that role (Tommy Singh). We thought, why don’t we go for a British-South Asian character?” he said during an interview.
“Because we really wanted that whole London thing in it. And Riz is a great actor. And I remember walking out of Nightcrawler – he had a small-ish part in that film,” he further mentioned.
“He wasn’t that big a star, so we weren’t being that unrealistic and foolish about it. I remember calling Abhishek and saying, ‘Yaar, aap please picture dekho, he’s outstanding and he can really fit Tommy’s part.’ Wishes can be horses when you’re casting,” he concluded.
