Govinda, not Manoj Bajpayee, was Hansal’s first choice for ‘Aligarh’, the filmmaker revealed in the interview.

Filmmaker Hansal Mehta had recently shared that he wanted to cast Govinda for the lead role in his acclaimed film ‘Aligarh’, starring Manoj Bajpayee and Rajkummar Rao in the lead roles.

Hansal Mehta wanted to cast Govinda in Aligarh

In an interview with Lallantop, Mehta said, “Sometimes when you think of an actor while writing a script, you get stuck on that actor. This has happened to me before when an actor decided to do a project. I had rejected what I had written keeping it in my mind. So, in that situation I had to abandon the story completely or recalibrate it and make it years later. This happened to me during Aligarh. When I sat with Mukesh Chhabra, the casting director for Aligarh, I told him, ‘Man, let’s talk to Govinda.’

Aligarh focuses on the life of Dr. Srinivas Ramchandra Siras, Professor of Aligarh University. Although not a box office success, ‘Aligarh’ managed to impress critics and currently holds an 85 percent audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, while the critical consensus boasts a 100 percent rating.

Apart from Manoj and Rajkumar Rao, Dilnaz Irani, Ishwak Singh and Ashish Vidyarthi were also in important roles in the film. Aligarh is available to stream on Prime Video, ZEE5 and YouTube.