Siddhant Chaturvedi on rejecting role in Brahmastra: I was blacklisted

Actor Siddhant Chaturvedi recently spoke about how he was “blacklisted” by the casting community and faced criticism because he rejected a role in Brahmastra Part One: Shiva.

Siddhant in an interview with the Lallantop said that he auditioned for the role before his film debut in Gully Boy in 2019.

“One month before Gully Boy, this (Brahmastra) happened. The makers of a very big film that eventually became the biggest film offered me a part. I had got it through a casting director. It was one of the characters, but it didn’t have any script or audition. They said that you do martial arts, it was an action fantasy film. There was an ashram in which I got the role of one of the superheroes. So, they said I should do it and it’s a VFX heavy project and it will take 5 years to make,” he said.

Siddhant added, “So I am meeting the main director, the production house is also big and it’s a three-film deal. I told Ayan (Mukerji) that give me a script so that I can understand what it is, I am very excited. The script was not there and it was in some very initial stages. And they said that it is a 3-film lock-in. I was not able to understand what to do and there were long lines of audition for that role.”

Siddhant ultimately rejected the role and was chided by the casting director for it. “I told the casting director that I won’t be able to do it. He stood up and said, ‘Are you mad? This is a Dharma film, there is a contract for three films.’ So, I said, ‘Who will watch me, if Amitabh Bachchan is there, Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt are there together. At least I should have two lines of dialogue to understand what I will be saying in the film.”

He added, “They blacklisted me from casting. Everybody said I was mad. The talk in casting circles was that I get selected and then reject a role. They would think ‘Who this arrogant, cocky guy?’ Thankfully that film took a lot of time to make. By then Gully Boy had come. I think that character (in Brahmastra) they edited out. In a way, whatever happened, happened for good.”

Siddhant ultimately went on to work in films like Bunty Aur Babli 2 (2021), Gehraiyaan (2022) and Phone Bhoot (2022). He will next be seen in Yudhra.