Mohit Out, newcomer in

Actor Mohit Ahlawat, once mentored by Ram Gopal Varma, has walked out of RGV’s Sholay. Being Ramu’s favourite partisan, Ahlawat was one of the first actors to be cast as protagonist “Jai”- played by Amitabh Bachchan in Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay.

Ramu asserts that it was a cordial call and nothing “went wrong”. He explains that the project was initiated 2 years ago. As and when the character of Jai was morphed by him, Ramu thought that Mohit would not fit the slot. Brushing away rumours of having had a “fight” with Mohit, he assured that there is no cold war between the duo, and that he would definitely consider working with Mohit on other projects. However, Ahlawat has a different story to relate. He claimed that he himself gave up the role of Jai as he was not convinced with Ramu’s film.

Ramu was attempting to focus on the character of Gabbar at the time, which is going to be played by ex-Jai, Amitabh Bachchan. The torch of Veeru was also passed on to Ajay Devgan instead of Abhishek Bachchan. And recently, Ramu has frozen on a ramp model to play the much sought-after role of Jai.

As sources have it, Prashant Raj, a model and a wannabe actor, often used to drop in at RGV’s production company “The Factory” through a reference. After several disappointing auditions, a crew member noticed Raj and called him in for a screen test. Ramu discovered potential spark in the model, which would very much suit the character. Without giving it much afterthought, he finalized Prashant Raj to play the role. Indeed, this is one golden opportunity at the struggling actor’s footsteps.