Prashant Raj is making his debut in Bollywood in a role played originally by someone who will be very hard to live up to. He is playing Jai in Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag, Ram Gopal Varmas’ remake of, or as the director says, a film inspired by Sholay, that originally starred Amitabh Bachchan in the same role.
The model turned actor says that fate stepped in and gave him this role. “Look at destiny. I was planning to settle down in LA to pursue a career in events and advertising by becoming a liaison officer, when Sholay happened. I’m a major movie buff, but I didn’t really think of a movie career.”
The actor was offered other films but did not sign any of them and now he is extremely happy he waited until Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag came along. In fact he said it was one of the happiest moments of his life telling his family that he was going to be in the remake of Sholay. “Of course my family, who moved from Delhi to Mumbai a few years ago, were delighted. But it was my 90-year-old grandmother who was the happiest. She did my aarti… It was a full-on scene from a family drama,” Prashant said.
The film also stars Ajay Devgan, Sushmita Sen, Nisha Kothari and has Big B essaying the character of Gabbar Singh. Raj added that, “I’m aware that my role of Jai has earlier been done by Amitabh. To step into his shoes isn’t just a mammoth task but an impossible one too. I’m not even going to try to be equal to that task. To my relief Varma’s Jai is quite different.”
We are eagerly awaiting this films release and it will be very interesting to see if this film inspired by Sholay will create box-office aag.
