A New Face Is In Search For Rakeysh Mehra’s 'Run Milkha Run'

Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra

StarBuzz Weekly, Toronto-January 5, 2011: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra is a smart director who wants to cut the budget of his new film to that of half, even if it means doing away with the A-listers from the film industry. The director hence has decided to either take a fresh face or a semi-newcomer to be in his film Run Milkha Run. The name that have been suggested earlier for the role was of Akshay Kumar and Mehra agrees that there are some B-town actors who’ll be capable of changing themselves into the legendary Indian runner for the biopic.

However, his budget won’t allow him to take an actor with the stature of Aamir Khan, Amitabh Bachchan or another A-lister. So it might be someone like Sharman Joshi in Rang De Basanti, who was a semi-newcomer at that time.

Mehra has already launched a nationwide search to find an actor who will not only be good in his histrionics but a good sprinter too to portray Milkha Singh and has already shortlisted few names. But the director refuses to divulge any details apart from the fact that he will not cast anyone totally new in front of the camera as once again his budget won’t allow him to give that person the acting lessons.

Talking about the budget restraint, Mehra, whose last offering was Delhi 6 says that the big films that failed to take home the moolah were not failures as films but their hefty budgets forced them to be ranked among the flops in the box-office. So, he won’t be making the same mistake and will start shooting for the film Run Milkha Run from mid of 2011 and goes on to state that all the parts will have to be auditioned for.
-Sampurn Wire