Before Shahid Kapoor, Sanjay Leela Bhansali approached THIS popular actor to play his role in ‘Padmaavat’?

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Padmaavat’ starring Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor and Ranveer Singh is one of the highest grossers in Bollywood. The epic saga, despite getting embroiled in controversies, became the first film of 2018 to enter the Rs 300 crore club. The movie was recently in news after Aishwarya Rai Bachchan revealed that she was the first choice to play queen Padmavati in the period drama. Grapevines are bow buzzing with the rumours that Bhansali first offered the role of Maharawal Ratan Singh (played by Shahid) to a popular Telugu star. Yes you heard that right. Any guesses who the actor is? A report in a portal suggested that the ace director wanted ‘Baahubali’ actor Prabhas to star in ‘Padmaavat’ as Ratan Singh. The report also stated that Bhansali was mighty impressed with Prabhas’ performance in the S. S. Rajamouli directorial in 2015 and thus approached him for the role in his dream project. (Prabhas in Baahubali) ‘Padmaavat’ is said to be in its initial stages of casting when Prabhas was being considered for the role. The ‘Rebel’ actor, who was fresh off the massive success of ‘Baahubali’, declined SLB’s film because he felt that the role was not meatier enough, the report in Quint said. The role of Ratan Singh was played by Shahid Kapoor who did complete justice to it and earned praise for his performance. Kapoor will now be seen in ‘Batti Gul Meter Chalu’, which hits the silver screens on September 21. (Shahid Kapoor in Padmaavat) Talking about Prabhas, the actor is currently busy shooting for his much-awaited film ‘Saaho’, which also stars Shraddha Kapoor. Sanjay Leela Bhansali is rumoured to be working with Salman Khan and Deepika Padukone in his next film which is said to be titled ‘Inshallah’. Watch this space for more updates!