<img style="float: left;" src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/images/2026/aug/Mayank-Shekhar-new_e.jpg" alt="Mayank Shekhar" width="150" height="76" />Soon as AR Murugadoss&rsquo;s Tamil film, <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/bollywood-news/article/pradeep-rawat-death-aamir-khan-remembers-his-ghajini-costar-23643325" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Ghajini </a>(2005), starring Suriya, Asin, became a hit, producer Allu Aravind decided on its Telugu release.
Only, the poster of that film had a &ldquo;much huger cutout&rdquo; of actor Pradeep Rawat, instead of the leads, &ldquo;who weren&rsquo;t as well-known with Telugu audiences.&rdquo;
Rawat told me this, once, to add, &ldquo;Whatever success, fame I&rsquo;d found then, even thereafter, is thanks to SS Rajamouli&rsquo;s third film, Sye (2004).&rdquo; He&rsquo;d played <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/bollywood-news/article/ghajini-2-aamir-khan-and-suriya-to-shoot-two-versions-simultaneously-23416448" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">super-villain, Bhikshu Yadav</a>, in the sports-actioner.&nbsp;
Rawat wasn&rsquo;t the original choice for Ghajini. Prakash Raj had already signed up for the part, including the supposed &ldquo;signing amount.&rdquo; As per Rawat, Raj had gone MIA since. The shoot commenced, until they could no longer carry on, without the villain&rsquo;s portions.&nbsp;
This is when Rawat was rushed over from Hyderabad to Chennai. It&rsquo;s only a month later, he realised, his first day&rsquo;s shoot was actually a screen-test that he&rsquo;d obviously passed.&nbsp;
<img src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/images/2026/aug/Pradeep-Rawat-2_e.jpg" alt="The veteran actor in 2024. Pic/youtube/@SiddharthKannanOfficial" width="1280" height="720" /> The veteran actor in 2024. Pic/youtube/@SiddharthKannanOfficial
I&rsquo;ve seen the Tamil Ghajini, without subtitles. Which I hardly understand a word of, obviously &mdash; besides that the villain, i.e. Rawat, has a double-role, Ram &amp; Shyam, while Ram or Shyam once speaks in Hindi, &ldquo;Mujhe Calcutta jaana hai!&rdquo;&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s unclear why this version&rsquo;s called Ghajini. Rawat says he never got to ask Murugadoss, either! Post its 2008 Hindi remake, Ghajini has become a metaphor/joke for someone totally lost, alluding to Aamir Khan from the film.&nbsp;
Except, <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/bollywood-news/article/pradeep-rawat-death-aamir-khan-attends-last-rites-of-ghajini-and-lagaan-co-actor-23643326" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Aamir&rsquo;s character</a> (as with Suriya&rsquo;s) is named Sanjay. It&rsquo;s Rawat, who plays Ghajini in Ghajini!&nbsp;
Rawat recalled, &ldquo;Upon Aamir&rsquo;s feedback on the script that led to a new, much-better climax, the villain&rsquo;s double-role got merged as well. That&rsquo;s how I got the title role.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Frankly, if there was no Christopher Nolan, there wouldn&rsquo;t be the Tamil Ghajini. I once asked Aamir, if he&rsquo;d seen Nolan&rsquo;s Memento (2000) &mdash; he said no.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I hadn&rsquo;t as well,&rdquo; Rawat said. What about Murugadoss, I asked Rawat. &ldquo;He said no, too; but I don&rsquo;t believe him,&rdquo; Rawat laughed. That booming, garrulous laugh.&nbsp;
Likewise, if not for Rawat &mdash; perhaps, there wouldn&rsquo;t be the Hindi Ghajini with Aamir in it. Rawat said Murugadoss was keen on Salman Khan for the film&rsquo;s potential Hindi remake: &ldquo;Given that Murugadoss could barely speak Hindi or English &mdash; and God knows what he&rsquo;d tell Salman in Tamil &mdash; I felt Aamir would suit his temperament better.&rdquo;
Rawat chased down Aamir with Ghajini&rsquo;s print, over six months; who, in turn, &ldquo;agreed to do the film, even before the end. Firstly, Aamir watched, only because he couldn&rsquo;t get himself to say no to my face!&rdquo;
Aamir and Rawat had known each other since the latter played the villain, Sultan, in Sarfarosh (1999) that had, evidently, impressed the superstar.&nbsp;
They became playing-card buddies, along with the cast &amp; crew, post pack-up, shooting for Lagaan (2001), in Bhuj. Aamir called Rawat, &ldquo;Deva,&rdquo; from his character, in Lagaan.&nbsp;
And that&rsquo;s what Aamir screamed out loud, shooting the Ghajini climax, at a makbara, in Hyderabad. Rawat and Aamir were meant to land on a protective mattress to get off the frame in the said fight + chase sequence.&nbsp;
Rawat recounted: &ldquo;I landed. Aamir didn&rsquo;t. I heard him screaming my name, from the pain. He had dehydrated his body so much for the ripped muscles, that his inner thighs were gone.&nbsp;
&ldquo;He had to be taken on a stretcher, hospitalised in Mumbai, for three months. When the shoot finally resumed, Aamir injured himself, the same way, in the same scene, at the same location!&rdquo;
Everyone remembers Ghajini for Aamir&rsquo;s mean machine-like body-transformation. Somehow, I recollect that line, where his tightly dressed <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/mumbai/mumbai-news/article/ghajini-dolls-to-bring-in-aamir-s-birthday-36571" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Sanjay Singhania</a> explains the difference between confidence and arrogance, in a public speech, &ldquo;I can accomplish something? It&rsquo;s confidence. [If I think] only I can? That&rsquo;s arrogance!&rdquo;&nbsp;
There wasn&rsquo;t anything of depth, otherwise, in the pure good vs evil, Ghajini &mdash; very unlike Aamir in the mainstream. It became India&rsquo;s first film to register footfalls worth over Rs 100 crore at the box-office.&nbsp;
Which made the bulky Rawat also among India&rsquo;s iconic, true-blue villains.&nbsp;
Especially, when heroes were getting into greyer characters, making the said product-category progressively redundant in Bollywood &mdash; what with Rawat and others from Mumbai, switching over down South, for the villain-roles.&nbsp;
Actor Mukesh Rishi, for instance, was once so busy with Telugu/Tamil movies that he ducked out of Deva in Lagaan &mdash; the role that Rawat bagged, as a result.
Rawat got his onscreen notice as Ashwatthama in Doordarshan&rsquo;s GOAT show, Mahabharat, that actor Smita Patil had recommended him to director Ravi Chopra for. He practiced theatre with Nadira Babbar&rsquo;s Ekjute Theatre Group.&nbsp;
Rawat has 160+ credits on IMDb &mdash; one of several well-known faces, without an equally well-known name. It feels surreal to hear him from my unreleased, 2022 podcast, &ldquo;[I&rsquo;ve spoken so much], I think you&rsquo;ll never invite me again,&rdquo; and that garrulous, booming laugh. Rawat (1952-2026) passed away, August 4.
Mayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture. He tweets @mayankw14 Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com The views expressed in this column are the individual&rsquo;s and don&rsquo;t represent those of the paper.

How the title role of India’s first 100 crore blockbuster went to late Pradeep Rawat, who I had a long, fun chat with once…

Mid-Day Opinion: So, who played Ghajini in ‘Ghajini’?

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Mid-Day Opinion: So, who played Ghajini in ‘Ghajini’?

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