Mukesh Rishi, who is best known for playing the role of Salim in Aamir Khan-starrer Sarfarosh, shared in a recent interview that he expected a lot more opportunities in Hindi cinema after Sarfarosh released but his career did not exactly pan that way. Mukesh shared that instead of getting calls from Bollywood producers, he started getting many calls from the southern film industry and established himself as one of the actors who was known for playing negative roles.
“After Sarfarosh released, I thought I will get a lot of offers in Bollywood but that did not happen. In fact, I got a few calls from the south film industry,” he told Rajshri Unplugged. Mukesh said that he was always proud of his punctuality and this trait matched perfectly with the discipline of the south film industry. “It felt like the villain who was successful before me was probably not very punctual but this discipline of mine, it really clicked there,” he shared.
In the same chat, Mukesh shared that it was during Sarfarosh that Aamir selected him for Lagaan and offered him the role of Deva, which was ultimately played by Pradeep Singh Rawat. Mukesh was a part of a few readings before he learnt that Aamir was planning to make the film in one stretch and wanted his actors to be on location for months. This wasn’t possible for Mukesh as he was already in the middle of shooting a few films in south.
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“We would go for Lagaan reading to Aamir Khan’s house. Then one day, when we were talking about dates, they were talking about months at a stretch. That’s when I got nervous,” he said and added, “I met Aamir and told him that this is the situation of my film and he was very supportive. He said what you are saying is absolutely fair. I have no regrets about losing Lagaan. I was very happy when I watched it. Pradeep Rawat did a good job.”
Mukesh was recently seen in the Prime Video web series Indian Police Force.
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