‘Imran Khan, being Aamir Khan’s nephew, auditioned six times for Delhi Belly’: Vir Das

Comedian-actor Vir Das has revealed that he gave nine auditions for his 2011 film Delhi Belly and co-star Imran Khan auditioned six times. In a chat with comedian Rohan Joshi, Vir was asked how he got selected for his role in Delhi Belly as Arup. Vir said that he had also auditioned for actor R Madhavan’s role in 3 Idiots and Purab Kohli’s role in Rock On.

Delhi Belly, an action comedy film, also featured Imran Khan, Kunaal Roy Kapur, Poorna Jagannathan and Shenaz Treasurywala. The film is produced by Aamir Khan Productions and UTV Motion Pictures. The story is about three roommates, journalist Tashi (Imran), photographer Nitin Berry (Kunaal) and cartoonist Arup (Vir).

Vir Das said, “I gave nine auditions for Delhi Belly. So, in that year of my life, I was auditioning for Delhi Belly, 3 Idiots and Rock On!! All three movies. And they all shot at the same f****** time. I was auditioning for Madhavan’s role in 3 Idiots, what Madhavan ended up getting. When I started auditioning for 3 Idiots, it wasn’t Aamir. It was Shah Rukh, or somebody else. It changed over that year. Rock On!! I was auditioning for Purab’s role. Delhi Belly, they started auditioning me for Imran’s role but then Imran wasn’t in their mind. They were trying different permutations and combinations.”

“One of the auditions was me, Gaurav Kapur and Cyrus Broacha. So, me in Imran’s role, Gaurav in my role and Cyrus in Kunal’s role. It was like three mosquitoes on crack. And then, Imran became Imran, because Jaane Tu had come out. And then we did like one audition with me, Imran and (Kunal) Roy Kapur. I was like, ‘I don’t f****** get this I know these two guys are getting it’. They are that perfect. And then it was the three of us. But that was the ninth audition, and by the way, Imran’s sixth audition. Imran, being Aamir’s nephew, auditioned six times,” he continued.

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While Delhi Belly released in 2011, 3 Idiots came out in 2009. Directed by Rajkumar Hirani, the film starred Aamir Khan, R Madhavan and Sharman Joshi in titular roles. The movie also starred Kareena Kapoor, Boman Irani and Omi Vaidya.

Rock On (2008) was written and directed by Abhishek Kapoor and produced by Farhan Akhtar. Apart from Purab, it featured Farhan, Arjun Rampal, Luke Kenny, Purab Kohli, and Prachi Desai.