Did You Know? Aamir Khan Wasn’t The First Choice To Play Mahavir Singh Phogat In Nitesh Tiwari’s Dangal

Aamir Khan’s film Dangal, which was released in 2016, remains to be one of the most successful films ever in his career. Nitesh Tiwari’s film has also been watched more than 400 million times on Chinese streaming platforms. While Aamir’s role fetched him a lot of appreciation, did you know he wasn’t the first choice for the role? Scroll down to know.

The film was based on wrestlers sisters Geeta Phogat and Babita Phogat who were trained by their father Mahavir Singh Phogat. They went on to become India’s first world-class female wrestlers. The film received praise for the “honest” depiction of a real-life story and Khan’s performance.

As per Quint report, Nitesh Tiwari and Manish Hariprasad (creative head at UTV Motion Pictures) had initially visualised Dangal with Irrfan Khan in mind since they wanted a method actor who could undergo Hariprasad as the character is seen ageing in the film. However, once the script was ready, they directly went to Aamir Khan and the rest is history. It never reached Irrfan Khan though.