Salman Khan is all set to share screen space with brother-in-law Aayush Sharma for the first time in Mahesh Manjrekar’s Antim. The first look teaser of Salman, shared by Aayush sent netizens into a tizzy a few days ago. But not many know that Salman wasn’t the first choice to play the top cop’s role in the Mulshi Pattern remake. Instead, it was another B-Town superstar who was supposed to play the part.
Not many know that when Mulshi Pattern was being planned and initially titled Dhak, the makers had approached Shah Rukh Khan to play the special role in the remake. “It’s a gritty drama that revolves around the cat and mouse chase between a cop and a gangster, who fights for the farmers’ rights. They wanted a superstar to play the police officer’s role alongside Aayush who steps into the main lead Om Bhutkar’s shoes for the Hindi adaptation. They had taken the film to SRK at that point. This is sometime last year but Shah Rukh politely declined the offer.”
SRK had a reason to say ‘no’. “Although the film has several confrontational scenes between Salman and Aayush’s character, this movie is primarily about the latter’s life and his journey. Salman’s part isn’t an extended cameo or a special appearance; the role is much longer than that but he isn’t the main hero of the film. It’s more like how Shah Rukh Khan’s role was in Dear Zindagi.” When Shah Rukh was approached for the same, he was on a sabbatical. Had Covid not happened, Antim would have been almost complete by now and ready for release in the first half of 2020. Shah Rukh had the option to choose between Antim and Pathan and selected the latter as it takes him back to the space that has worked for him in the past.
