Soon after making her debut in Karan Johar’s Student Of The Year, Alia Bhatt proved her mettle in acting with Imtiaz Ali’s Highway. The film remains one of her best performances and one of the most memorable films of Imtiaz’s career. However, while Alia and Imtiaz received all the praise, Randeep Hooda, who played a pivotal role in the film, was overlooked by the makers. In a recent interaction, the Murder 3 actor recalled the time he was excluded from Highway’s promotions.
He shared that he didn’t understand the decision of the makers to keep him out of the film’s promotions, as he played the male lead in the film. During the interaction, the interviewer shared how he saw Ranbir Kapoor with Alia and Imtiaz at the Highway promotions, but there was no sign of Randeep. Reacting to the same, he told Shubhankar Mishra, “Maine bhi voh dekha aur mujhe bhi samajh nahi aaya Ranbir Kapoor ka iss picture se kya lena dena hai (I also didn’t understand, what does Ranbir Kapoor have to do with this film?).” Ranbir had interviewed Alia and Imtiaz for a news channel as part of Highway’s promotions.
Expressing how he was ‘hurt’ by the decision, he said, “I felt really bad. If I would have gotten support at that time, it would have helped my career.” However, Randeep admitted that Highway might have been the beginning of Ranbir and Alia’s romance, which culminated in their marriage. He said, “Maybe that’s where their love story began. I offer them my best wishes. If this film brought them together, I’m truly happy for them.”
While Randeep couldn’t agree with the makers’ decision, he tried to rationalise it by saying that they decided to focus on Alia because they were telling a story of female exploitation. “But once audiences saw it, they realised that without Mahabir Bhati (his character), the film wouldn’t have had the same impact,” he added.
The actor shared that he was called to join promotions only in the last 1-2 days when the promotions weren’t getting traction. He said, “Maybe in the last day or two, the film wasn’t picking up momentum, so they included me.”
Randeep’s latest film Jaat, starring Sunny Deol in the lead role, is currently running in theatres.