{"id":331772,"date":"2026-03-10T14:05:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T14:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/331772\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T14:05:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T14:05:08","slug":"paani-shekhar-kapur-says-paani-hit-roadblock-because-yrf-didnt-want-to-cast-sushant-singh-rajput-after-he-was-rehearsing-for-six-months-hindi-movie-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/331772\/","title":{"rendered":"Paani: Shekhar Kapur says ‘Paani’ hit roadblock because YRF didn’t want to cast Sushant Singh Rajput after he was rehearsing for six months | Hindi Movie News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Shekhar In April 2014, reports suggested that filmmaker Shekhar Kapur<\/a> was finally ready to begin work on his long-delayed futuristic film ‘Paani’, a project that had remained stuck in development for more than a decade. At the time, Sushant Singh Rajput<\/a> had replaced Hrithik Roshan<\/a> as the male lead, raising hopes that the ambitious film, set in a dystopian 2050 where the world is grappling with an extreme water crisis, would soon enter production. However, nearly 12 years later, and more than five years after Sushant\u2019s death, the film is still yet to be made.Kapur recently opened up on the project and shed light on why Yash Raj Films ultimately stepped away from the film. In a conversation, he revealed that the production was halted before it could even begin. <\/p>\n

Sushant Singh Rajput Birth Anniversary: Why His Legacy Still Hits Home Six Years Later<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t even start Paani\u2019s production (unlike some other films of Kapur that were shelved midway). By the time YRF decided that they wouldn\u2019t cast Sushant, I had already been rehearsing with him for six months. After hearing their decision, I went back to the West. I had only come to India to do Paani. However, I haven\u2019t abandoned the project,\u201d he said in an interview with The Lallantop. Kapur also recalled a conversation with Aditya Chopra, the head of YRF, explaining how their creative arrangement eventually led to the film being dropped by the studio.\u201cThe agreement Aditya Chopra (YRF\u2019s head) and I had was that he would wield the business control while I would have the creative control over the movie. Then one day, he called me for breakfast and said, \u2018Shekhar, what I have seen at YRF is that, if I don\u2019t stand behind the director all the time, things don\u2019t run well and the film doesn\u2019t turn out well. Hence, it has become my habit. But I can\u2019t stand behind you like that.\u2019 He was right, because our agreement was that we were making my film. \u2018I probably won\u2019t be able to do that,\u2019 he said. That\u2019s how we decided that YRF wouldn\u2019t go ahead with the project.\u201dKapur explained that the decision wasn\u2019t the result of any conflict, but rather a natural difference in creative approaches between two established filmmakers.\u201cIt’s a simple matter. Since we couldn\u2019t stay together creatively, it was decided that YRF would not make it. That\u2019s how Paani hit a roadblock. But I haven\u2019t abandoned it totally,\u201d he said.Reflecting on Sushant, who passed away in 2020 at his home in Mumbai, Kapur shared that he was in Bhimtal, Uttarakhand when he heard the tragic news. The director described the late actor as deeply dedicated to his craft, though he admitted he did not know him well on a personal level.\u201cHe was very obsessive about the role. I didn\u2019t notice anything different in him. He was an obsessive actor. As a director, that\u2019s what I needed. I didn\u2019t notice anything else abnormal about him. That may also be because I didn\u2019t know him personally,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In April 2014, reports suggested that filmmaker Shekhar Kapur was finally ready to begin work on his long-delayed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[55978,5511,146,107951,6242,85,46,397,163489,108280,79136,14886],"class_list":{"0":"post-331772","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-aditya-chopra","9":"tag-bollywood-news","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-film-production","12":"tag-hrithik-roshan","13":"tag-il","14":"tag-israel","15":"tag-movies","16":"tag-paani","17":"tag-shekhar-kapur","18":"tag-sushant-singh-rajput","19":"tag-yash-raj-films"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}