Udta Punjab has been marked as one of the finest films starring Shahid Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor, Alia Bhatt. While we all loved watching the actors in the film, Shahid stunned us with his work undoubtedly.
However, not many know that Shahid Kapoor wasn’t the first choice for the role in the film, and it was Riz Ahmend.
Riz Ahmed said, to Film Companion, “We also dabbled with the idea of Riz Ahmed at one point in time. We never thought of a Bollywood actor for that role (Tommy Singh). We thought, why don’t we go for a British-South Asian character? Because we really wanted that whole London thing in it. And Riz is a great actor. And I remember walking out of Nightcrawler – he had a small-ish part in that film. He wasn’t that big a star, so we weren’t being that unrealistic and foolish about it. I remember calling Abhishek and saying, ‘Yaar, aap please picture dekho, he’s outstanding and he can really fit Tommy’s part.’ Wishes can be horses when you’re casting.” as quoted by HT.