While promoting his upcoming film Maalik, Rajkummar Rao opened up about one of the biggest what-could-have-been moments in his career. In a recent interview, the actor revealed that Gangs of Wasseypur was initially written as a showdown between his character and Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s, until major changes to the script altered the course of his role entirely.“Wasseypur was supposed to be between me and Nawaz”Rajkummar shared how it was Anurag Kashyap who personally called him for the film. “At that time, Wasseypur was supposed to be between me and Nawaz. The story was between these two characters,” he told Pinkvilla, recalling his excitement to play a parallel lead in the project.He went on to share that both he and Nawazuddin Siddiqui travelled to the real Wasseypur along with writer Zeeshan Qadri to prep for the roles.

“We stayed there for some time. I was recording people on my voice recorder just to get the accent and to understand the milieu. Bahot maza aaya,” he said.“Anurag sir told me, ‘Tera role ab kuch bacha nahi hai’”Rao then narrated how one day, while he was doing patchwork for Ragini MMS, he received a call from Anurag Kashyap asking him to visit his office. The meeting brought unexpected news. “He said, ‘Sun, script aa gayi hai but abhi tera role usme kuch bacha nahi hai, to tu dekh kya karna hai.’

He gave me the choice but said he’d love to have me in the film.”Despite the disappointment, Rajkummar chose to stay on. “I said, ‘Sir, mujhe aapke saath kaam karna hai. I don’t know kitna bada role hai but jo bhi hai main karunga,’” he added.

“Of course, I felt bad”The actor admitted that he was hurt by the change. “Of course thoda bura laga tha, kyunki mujhe pata nahi tha ki kitna kata hai. We all are humans. Mujhe thoda bura to laga tha ki yaar hum log to gaye the train se, 3 din lage the wahan pahuchne me. Nobody had money. But that was all fine as long as I’m getting work.”Rajkummar also credited Kashyap for recommending his name to Hansal Mehta for Shahid, a film that proved to be a major turning point in his career.