Arjun Reddy hindi remake: Shahid Kapoor, not Ranveer Singh, might be cast as lead

The latest buzz around the Hindi remake of the Telugu film Arjun Reddy is that Shahid Kapoor will be playing the lead in the movie and not Ranveer Singh, as it was being speculated earlier. [caption id=“attachment_4267531” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Shahid Kapoor-Ranveer Singh. Images from Facebook.[/caption] “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 Padmavati," said an unverified source, according to a report by The Quint. Arjun Reddy is the story of a philandering, alcoholic, drug-addict who also happens to be a surgeon who falls in love with an innocent medical student. Vijay Deverakonda essayed the role of the protagonist in the original movie and his performance was majorly appreciated by the audience and critics alike. Kapoor would reportedly require a lot of preparation for the role, which includes losing eight to nine kilograms so that his frame looks ‘gaunt and drugged’. Kapoor would also have to learn how to snort cocaine and inject himself with uppers and stimulants. Being no rookie to the drug-addict portrayal, Kapoor has previously essayed a similar character in his 2016 film Udta Punjab.