Raashii Khanna reveals she initially rejected audition for Madras Cafe; says, “I was scared seeing so many people, I was always very shy” : Bollywood News

Raashii Khanna revealed that she was initially not interested in auditioning for her debut film Madras Cafe, which was released in 2013 and featured John Abraham in the lead role. She made this revelation during an appearance on Farah Khan’s YouTube show, where she also shared her favourite recipe for “kale chane ka pulao.”

Raashii Khanna reveals she initially rejected audition for Madras Cafe; says, “I was scared seeing so many people, I was always very shy”

Raashii said, “I ran away from the first audition. There were a lot of people. It was an ad. It was a lip gloss ad. I was scared seeing so many people. I was always very shy.”

To which Farah replied, “It wasn’t Mukesh Chhabra?”

Raashii responded, “No. They sent me to small auditions.” She further explained, “There were auditions, but they didn’t call a lot of people. There were no open auditions. I got an ad. I got a call from casting director Jogi Ji. Jogi Ji said the Madras Cafe casting is happening.” She added, “I said ‘I am not interested in films. I don't want to do it. I am here for a time pass’. I refused twice. The third time I said yes out of respect.”

Madras Cafe is a political action thriller directed by National Award-winning filmmaker Shoojit Sircar. The film also stars Nargis Fakhri alongside John Abraham.

The film is set in the late 1980s and early 1990s, during the time of Indian intervention in the Sri Lankan civil war and the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Madras Cafe revolves around an Indian soldier appointed by the intelligence agency R&AW to lead covert operations in Jaffna, shortly after the Indian peacekeeping force was forced to withdraw.

Farah found it unbelievable that Raashii had initially said no to the role and said, “People are dying to go for a movie audition. After the audition, you got a film?”

Raashii responded, “That was my first film. After that, I started getting films from the south.” She also mentioned that the languages she knows are “Punjabi, Hindi, English, Tamil, and Telugu.”

Farah, clearly stunned, remarked, “You could have been in the embassy. As an interpreter or something like that.”

Raashii then shared, “The idea was I wanted to be an IAS officer. But now I feel like even as an actor, we can do so much for people. That was the idea. I am happy to be an actor.”

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