For Jatin Sarna, life has come full circle. The actor, who was once dropped from Akshay Kumar-led Airlift (2016), recently declined a role in Kumar’s upcoming comedy Bachchan Pandey. “I was heartbroken when I lost Airlift,” he recalls.

Talking about the project, which he lost to actor Purab Kohli, Sarna shares, “I’m a huge Akshay Kumar fan. When I was cast for the role, I was excited and my family thought it was my big break. But one day, I realised baat bigad gayi hai. I kept calling them, but there was no response. I went to meet director Raja Krishna Menon, and found out they had already started shooting. They dropped me and went with a known face.”

Interestingly, after watching the movie, the disappointment turned into relief, the 37-year old shares. “I felt better that it didn’t happen; it was not an exciting role anyway,” he adds.

The Sacred Games actor reveals the reason he rejected the upcoming movie was the role he was being offered. “I didn’t like the character; it didn’t really excite me,” he admits.

Not just Bachchan Pandey, Sarna confesses he has refused close to 12 movies recently, which also included the Salman Khan-starrer, Tiger 3. “I rejected 12 films. I was offered Tiger 3 and Ahmed Khan’s OM: The Battle Within with actor Aditya Roy Kapur,” he says and adds, “I don’t like dost, chacha, bhatija roles anymore. I want to work with all the stars, but it has to be substantial. Simply sharing screen space with big actors is not my priority.”