Actor Arjan Bajwa recently opened up about a disappointing experience he had while working on Mani Ratnam’s 2007 film Guru. In an interview with Siddharth Kannan, Arjan said he was originally told by filmmaker Anurag Kashyap that he would have a very important role in the movie. But later, that role was given to someone else, and the role he did get turned out to be much smaller than what was promised.

Arjan shared that he had auditioned for the role of Shyam Saxena, which was eventually played by R. Madhavan. After the audition, Anurag Kashyap called him and said, “Don’t get excited but Mani sir saw your audition and really liked it.” Arjan was very hopeful at that time. But after a while, he found out that Madhavan had been chosen instead. Arjan said, “I was quite disheartened. I think Mani sir had a bond with Madhavan, as he had launched him in Tamil films.”

Soon after, someone from Mani Ratnam’s direction team asked Arjan to audition for a different role. This time, Mani Ratnam himself recorded his audition using a handycam and said, “Good,” which made Arjan very happy. “An actor waits his whole life to hear something like that,” he said.

After this, Arjan again spoke to Anurag Kashyap, who told him that the new role was amazing. Anurag said, “It’s the best role. You will grow from age 28 to 68 in the film.” Arjan felt excited and believed it would be a powerful role. But when the actual shooting started, he realized that the role had been reduced a lot. “We didn’t even shoot most of the scenes that were written in the script,” Arjan said.

He added, “I was hurt by that. I don’t know the reasons. Maybe the director changed his vision, or maybe this happens often in the film industry. But I really wanted to prove myself, and it didn’t go the way I hoped.” In Guru, Arjan played the role of Arzan Contractor.