Actor Randeep Hooda recently revealed that he was offered the role of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in the 2025 hit film Chhaava, starring Vicky Kaushal in the lead and based on the life of Sambhaji, the second ruler of the Maratha Empire. Despite the film becoming a massive hit and emerging as one of the highest-grossing Hindi films in Indian cinema history, Hooda said he rejected the role, which was eventually played by Akshaye Khanna and earned praise for his powerful portrayal.
Randeep Hooda Explains Why He Rejected Aurangzeb's Role In Chhaava
Explaining the reason, Randeep told Zoom that he was not in the right mind space when director Laxman Utekar approached him for Chhaava. He said that despite his love and respect for Laxman as a person and filmmaker, he was extremely underweight and had shaved his head at the time, having just wrapped shooting for Savarkar and begun its post-production.
"I was going through an IP court case and I had so much Hindu-Muslim thing going on in the whole narrative and I just did not want to go down that street. So after that when this movie [Eetha] came on board, I liked it," said Hooda.
Randeep and his wife Lin Laishram, welcomed a baby girl on March 10, which also coincided with Randeep’s father Ranbir Hooda’s, birthday. A month after her birth, Randeep revealed their daughter’s name as Nyomica Hooda.
Work Front
On the work front, Randeep was recently seen in Inspector Avinash 2. Directed by Neeraj Pathak, the second season premiered on May 15 on JioHotstar.
Season 2 continued the story, once again set in 1990s Uttar Pradesh. The series expanded its ensemble cast with performances by Urvashi Rautela, Amit Sial, Abhimanyu Singh, Rajneesh Duggal, Shalin Bhanot and Freddy Daruwala.
