83: Vicky Kaushal was this close to playing Mohinder Amarnath before Saqib Saleem took up role

The Kabir Khan directorial traces the story of the Indian cricket team’s first World Cup victory in 1983

Vicky Kaushal was on the verge of making an appearance in Kabir Khan’s latest directorial, 83. It was recently revealed that the Sardar Udham star had auditioned for the role of Mohinder Amarnath in the sports drama.

According to a report in Times of India, director Khan had been eager to give Kaushal the role after his audition. The audition had reportedly taken place before the release of Raazi, in which he starred opposite Alia Bhatt. After the film had become a critical and commercial hit, Kaushal had decided that he did not want to play a second lead in 83, and had therefore decided to drop out of the project. Saqib Saleem bagged the role later on.

83 revolves around the story of the Indian cricket team’s first World Cup victory in 1983 against the West Indies, at a time where the team was still viewed as an underdog. Kapil Dev had served as captain at the time.

Ranveer Singh essays the role of Dev. in addition to Singh and Saleem, the film also features Deepika Padukone, Tahir Raj Bhasin, Jiiva, Harrdy Sandhu, Ammy Virk,Pankaj Tripathi and Boman Irani among others. The movie is co-produced by Padukone along with Khan.

83 is now showing in theatres. The film is likely to be released on Netflix as well as Disney+Hotstar soon.

Meanwhile Kaushal was last seen in the biographical drama, Sardar Udham helmed by Shoojit Sircar. The film can be streamed on Amazon Prime Video. The actor is currently working on the films Sam Bahadur, Govinda Mera Naam, The Great Indian Family and Takht.

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