Shahid Kapoor Replaces Ranveer Singh in ‘Arjun Reddy’ Remake

2017’s most influential Telugu film was as successful as it was controversial.

Shahid Kapoor at an event.

(Photo: Yogen Shah)

It’s goodbye Ranveer Singh, hello Shahid Kapoor for the long-awaited remake of 2017’s most influential Telugu film Arjun Reddy. The story of an alcoholic, drugged philandering surgeon who loses his heart to a young innocent medical student and goes the Devdas way, has proved to be as controversial as it has been successful.

Everybody who loved Arjun Reddy presumed that the amazing actor Vijay Deverakonda, who played the role in the original Telugu , would slip into the Hindi version as well.

However confirmed sources reveal that it is Shahid Kapoor who will play Arjun Reddy.

“Director Sandeep Vanga was on board for the Hindi version of the film , since he owns the copyrights of all the remakes. For reasons best known to him, he wanted Ranveer Singh to play Arjun Reddy. But after Padmavati, Ranveer is voluntarily off-limits for dark characters. So Sandeep then went to Ranveer’s Padmavati co-star Shahid Kapoor for whom the role of the doped, drugged, drunken doctor Devdas would be an antithetical change after the noble royalty in <i>Padmavati</i>.”

A source

Shahid would require intense preparation, including losing at least 8-9 kilos to look gaunt and drugged. He would also need to learn how to snort cocaine and how to inject himself with stimulants and uppers.

Incidentally, the actor played a druggie rockstar in Udta Punjab.