Kiran Rao has opened up about her decision to not cast Aamir Khan as a cop in Missing Ladies, while the actor jokingly accused her of questioning his acting abilities.
It’s no secret that Aamir Khan was keen to play Sub-Inspector Shyam Manohar in Kiran Rao’s Missing Ladies. However, the role was eventually played by Ravi Kishan.
During the screening of the film at the Asian World Film Festival, Kiran elaborated on her decision to not cast Aamir, while the actor jokingly accused the filmmaker of doubting his acting abilities.
Recalling the experience, Aamir said, “I tried to play a character in the film; she (Kiran) didn’t let me do it. I wanted to play the cop’s role and even gave a screen test for it, but I was rejected. I was really keen to play that role, but Kiran and I discussed it. I think my screen test was very good, but we decided to cast Ravi Kishan. Both of us took this decision.” Kiran sheds light on her reasoning behind the casting choice, “Obviously, his screen test was good, and he really wanted to play that role.
But I felt the balance of the film could have been a little off. Now, everyone knows that the character changes in the end, even though he appears to be a shade of grey throughout the film. It shows that he has a sympathetic side. But with Aamir, you would expect him to do something in the end because he is Aamir Khan.”
Aamir added with his typical humour, “They did not trust me as an actor. They did not trust that I would be able to make the audience understand that I am a person of very grey shades.” Missing Ladies, which opened to a lukewarm response initially, became a sleeper hit as its story deeply affected the audience.
The film was later selected as India’s official entry to the Oscars 2025. Produced by Aamir Khan and directed by Kiran Rao, it stars Nitanshi Goyal, Pratibha Ranta, Sparsh Srivastava, Chhaya Kadam and Ravi Kishan in lead roles.
