Siddharth Nigam came incredibly close to securing the lead role in Azaad. In a recent interview, Siddharth’s mother disclosed that her son was the original choice for the film, which ultimately served as the grand debut for Ajay Devgn’s nephew, Aaman Devgan, and Raveena Tandon’s daughter, Rasha Thadani.
Discussing the challenges faced by “outsiders” in the entertainment industry, she openly shared how Siddharth lost the role to a star kid. She told an entertainment portal, “I took him along for the meeting. The entire script was narrated, and we waited for a year. I was happy because the film was good, and Siddharth would have had a strong launch in Bollywood. I really loved the script.
But suddenly, after two years, Siddharth showed me the poster of Azaad and said, ‘Mum, this has been released, and these are the people in the film.’ Then we saw that the film starred Ajay Devgn’s nephew and Rasha. For the first time in my life, I felt bad. When things like this happen, as a mother, it hurts. Then I realised both of them were star kids, and that made all the difference.”
Siddharth himself added a nuanced perspective, stating, “There’s no one to blame. This is the business industry, so there’s no point in asking why they did it — they must have had their own reasons. It’s more of a personal realisation and pain. You get your hopes up thinking something might work out. We wait for an entire year, and then we see the teaser. So after watching it, we just thought, ‘Oh, okay. Let’s move on.’”
The period action drama, Azaad, directed by Abhishek Kapoor and produced by Ronnie Screwvala and Pragya Kapoor, features Ajay Devgn and Diana Penty alongside newcomers Aaman Devgan and Rasha Thadani. The movie received a mixed to negative reception from critics and performed very poorly at the box office, grossing just Rs 8 crore worldwide.
Meanwhile, Siddharth is currently earning significant acclaim for his performance in the show Hai Junoon! This musical drama, produced by Aditya Bhat and directed by Abhishek Sharma, also features Neil Nitin Mukesh, Boman Irani, Jacqueline Fernandez, Sumedh Mudgalkar, and Yukti Thareja in prominent roles.
