Rajeev shared that he has never been particularly drawn to commercial cinema, but working with Bhansali was an opportunity he could not resist after reading the script of Chenab Gandhi. Explaining his decision, he told Pinkvilla, “I was signed by a commercial director. You guys must have read about it. I was signed by a very popular film director of our industry. I was in a two film deal with him, but that film never took off. That was the only commercial film I signed. Also, that film looked commercial because it was being directed by a commercial filmmaker, but the script was one of the very few good scripts that I have read. But that film never got made. I’m talking about Chenab Gandhi. I signed the film because of the script.”
Despite being approached by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Rajeev revealed that he clearly laid down his conditions and reserved the right to walk away from the project if he did not connect with the script. Recalling the interaction, he said, “At that time also I asked Bhansali that you should test me and you tell me you want me, after that you give me the liberty to ask you for the script and also give me the freedom to say no. You do whatever you want – screen test and look test, but on the day you will say that ‘Rajeev, I want you’, after that, I will read the script, and I will also have a right to say yes or no. He respected that and he kept meeting me for 15-20 days. After that, I read the script and I was shaken up, I have never read a script like that in my life. I agreed to do it. Not because of the set up, but because the script was this.”
For the unversed, Chenab Gandhi was one of the most anticipated projects of Sanjay Leela Bhansali. The film was planned as a biographical drama based on the life of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the legendary freedom fighter also known as Frontier Gandhi. However, reports at the time suggested that the ambitious project was eventually shelved following Bhansali’s fallout with his then-assistant Vibhu Puri, who was slated to make his directorial debut with the film.
Rajeev further admitted that in an industry where being a ‘yes man’ to big directors often helps actors go far, he has consciously chosen not to compromise on his principles, even if it meant saying no to major filmmakers when the script did not appeal to him.
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Sharing another incident from his career, he said, “Another incident happened to me. I will not take the name of the film because it is a well-known film. I asked a very well-known director again that he should screen test me but I told him that I will read the script, and if I don’t like it, I will say no. He told me I perfectly fit the bill, but when I read the script, I told him that ‘I don’t think I want to do this film’. He said okay.”
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He added, “When the film was releasing, I met him again, and the film was promoted massively, and I was thinking if I made the right choice and the actor who played that character was very loved, that actor passed away. The film was a flop after it released. So I took the right call.”
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