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Did you know Shah Rukh Khan was supposed to play gangster in Paul Schrader and Martin Scorsese's movie with Leonardo DiCaprio? Here’s why it didn’t happen
Recently, director Paul Schrader revealed that he was reportedly working on a film with Leonardo DiCaprio and Shah Rukh Khan, but it was shelved. Read to know more!
At one point, Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan was in talks with Hollywood icon Leonardo DiCaprio and legendary director Martin Scorsese about a film called Xtreme City. However, the project was eventually abandoned. Director Paul Schrader has now shared the reason for its cancellation, revealing that Shah Rukh Khan had a crucial role in the film, but he changed his mind midway and the movie got scrapped.
During an appearance on the Pod Casty for Me podcast, Paul Schrader reflected on the film that never came to fruition. He shared that at one point, he, Martin Scorsese, and Shah Rukh Khan were all interested in the project and even met in Berlin to discuss it.
Martin was set to produce the film, but Schrader revealed that Shah Rukh eventually lost interest midway through the process.
Paul Schrader explained that the Jawan actor is a significant figure in the industry, often taking on the role of hiring directors for various aspects of a film, such as musical numbers, action scenes, or personal relationship sequences.
Schrader noted that Shah Rukh had never worked under a director with a distinct auteur style, and he could sense that this was becoming challenging for him. He also pointed out that Shah Rukh had never worked in the West or played a secondary role to someone like Leonardo DiCaprio before.
Regarding the plot, Paul revealed that Shah Rukh was meant to portray a gangster whom an American police officer (played by Leonardo) confronts after being saved by him in India.
Paul mentioned that as he continued writing the script, he visited Mumbai multiple times to meet with Shah Rukh, but he could feel the actor’s commitment slowly waning.
Once Shah Rukh’s commitment became provisional, Leonardo’s commitment followed suit, leaving the project with no firm commitments.
In a 2013 interview with Open, Paul discussed his brief interest in working on a Bollywood-inspired project. He shared that after attending a film festival in Delhi and meeting people who proposed a cross-cultural film, he became intrigued by the idea of merging an international movie with Bollywood elements, something he saw as an exciting, unexplored concept.
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