Shahid Kapoor who was roped in for the role of Raja Rawal Ratan for Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s upcoming magnum opus ‘Padmavati’ was not the first choice of SLB. Latest media reports say that SLB first went to Shah Rukh Khan to bring him on the board for the role of the Raja (Padmavati’s husband).
However, Shah Rukh refused to be the part of the movie.
As per the gossip mills, SRK didn’t want to be the lead in the periodical drama, so he choose to reject the movie quite smartly.
Apparently, King Khan decided to double his fees for the movie, which was quite unacceptable to Bhansali.
According to the media reports, Shah Rukh who generally charge anything between Rs 45 to 50 crores for a movie, asked for whopping Rs. 90 crores to be part of the project. SLB was left with no other option but to drop SRK, as it would have increased the production budget by a considerable margin.
Bhansali has now reportedly zeroed in Shahid Kapoor for the role of Raja Rawal Ratan after making a slight change in the script. Apparently, Shahid has charged around Rs 9-10 crores for the movie.
“Shah Rukh who is busy with number of projects doubled his fee to reject the role. Now he is one of the highest paid actors and his demand was too huge for the film and so that didn’t happen”, a source reportedly told an entertainment portal.
As per the industry reports, Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh have also been roped in for the roles of Padmavati and Allauddin Khilji respectively
On the other hand, Sanjay Leela Bhansali hasn’t made any official announcement regarding the cast of 'Padmavati'. However, there are reports that the movie will release on Diwali next year.
