Chaya Unnikrishnan (DNA; March 21, 2018)

Sushant Singh Rajput made his Bollywood debut as the playful and outgoing Ishaan in Kai Po Che (2013). It also proved to be a breakthrough film for Rajkummar Rao, who won acclaim for his role as the calm and balanced Govind. Five years since both the actors, who played friends in the Abhishek Kapoor directorial, have attained success and fame though they have followed different paths. While Sushant has been a part of hit masala films like Shuddh Desi Romance (2013), and the biopic MS Dhoni: The Untold Story (2016), Rajkummar has carved a niche for himself with projects like Shahid (2012), CityLights (2014), and Newton (2017), which won him critical acclaim and box-office successes like Bareilly Ki Barfi (2017).

Cut to 2018, the two actors, who are on an equal footing, were all set to reunite on screen for Nitesh Tiwari’s next after Dangal (2016). The as-yet-untitled film is said to be a college drama with a social message. It’s touted to be a celebration of life that talks about embracing success and failure.

While an announcement about Sushant playing the lead in it has already been made, a source had told this newspaper that Nitesh was also keen on signing Rajkummar for it. Both of them even had a few meetings where they discussed the two-hero project and the Newton actor had liked its script.

But now, we hear that Rajkummar is not doing the film. Says the insider, “Sushant and Rajkummar started their careers around the same time. While both the actors have become successful, Rajkummar has had a fantastic 2017 with a spate of successful movies that were also critically acclaimed. More importantly, in most of his upcoming films, he is playing a solo hero. While he is not averse to doing multi-hero projects, playing the second lead to Sushant at this stage of his career is not something he may want to do. Besides, he has started shooting for Stree with Shraddha Kapoor and will reunite with his Queen co-star Kangana Ranaut in Mental Hai Kya. Though the actor is always on the lookout for content-driven scripts, he does not have the dates to accommodate the film with Sushant.”