Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra wanted to rope in Hrithik Roshan for his upcoming venture Kabaddi, but when things did not fall into place with the superstar, he reportedly went on to sign Shahid Kapoor for the role. A trade analyst reveals to a portal, “Hrithik was in talks for Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra ’s ‘Kabaddi’, produced by Ronnie Screwvala and had heard the concept and liked it. The film is a fictional story based on kabaddi and set in a prisoner-of-war camp and the actor would have played a kabaddi player. But Hrithik is busy with Siddharth Anand ’s and Vikramaditya Motwane’s next so he informed Ronnie that they should go ahead without him and sign another star. Once Shahid came to know that Hrithik was no longer doing the film he started sending feelers to Rakeysh. He even met the filmmaker a few times and expressed his desire to do the film. Shahid is a very talented actor and has worked with some great directors like Vishal Bharadwaj and Imtiaz Ali so it will be interesting to see him work with Mirzya director for the first time. Also, Shahid has never worked before in a sports-centric film”.

Mehra’s spokesperson also disclosed, “There are two-three scripts that Mr Mehra is working on and one of them is the kabaddi one. It will only be complete by June next year. He is very keen to do the Kabaddi movie with Hrithik and once the script is complete, Mr Mehra will give him a proper narration”.

Shahid Kapoor who is currently busy with Sanjay Leela Bhansali 's ‘ Padmavati ’, has also signed Shree Narayan Singh ’s next film titled Batti Gul Meter Chalu.