Fahadh Faasil turned down a significant role in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s upcoming film Digger, citing accent training demands and uncompensated expenses as key factors.
Key Points
- Fahadh Faasil declined a role in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s film Digger alongside Tom Cruise.
- The role, an Indian character named Ganesh, required intensive accent training in the United States.
- The studio refused to cover Fahadh’s living and training expenses for the required three to four months.
Vir Das got everyone’s attention when he revealed in a now-deleted X post that he had auditioned twice for Alejandro González Iñárritu’s new film Digger, starring Tom Cruise, but didn’t get the role.
The role — of an Indian character named Ganesh — eventually went to Riz Ahmed.
Turns out, Malayalam star Fahadh Faasil was also in contention for the role but he could not be a part of it.
The Casting Conundrum
So what went wrong with Fahadh’s casting?
Director Alejandro González Iñárritu reportedly expressed reservations about Fahadh’s accent during the audition process.
The production team asked Fahadh to move to the United States for three-four months of intensive accent training but refused to cover his living and training expenses during that period, making the commercial aspect of the deal unviable for him.
Fahadh stated that he did not feel the ‘fire’ or the desire to put himself through so much hassle just to alter his accent.
Photographs curated by Satish Bodas/Rediff
