Exclusive! Emraan Hashmi is not playing a dwarf because of Shah Rukh Khan’s Zero – here’s why

Milap Zaveri has recently begun the shooting of his film Marjaavaan, starring Sidharth Malhotra, Riteish Deshmukh, Rakul Preet and Tara Sutaria. And the highlight of the film is undoubtedly Riteish playing the dwarf a la Shah Rukh Khan in Zero. However, we’ve found out that the film was originally  meant to be a sequel to Ek Villain. Not just that, the film was to star Emraan Hashmi and was to be helmed by Mohit Suri who had earlier directed Ek Villain, in which Riteish had played the villain.

According to a source, Emraan’s character in Ek Villain 2 was that of a dwarf. “But when Mohit found out that Shah Rukh Khan was going to play a dwarf in Zero, he decided to move out of the project. Milap, who recently gave the superhit Satyamev Jayate for T-Series and Nikkhil Advani, and who was involved as a dialogue-writer for Ek Villain, later wrote a story with a similar thread, and  took the script to Nikkhil Advani, who decided to produce the film,” says the source. The source added, “On Emraan’s exit, Riteish was roped in for the role. And he immediately agreed to come on board. In this film, Riteish will be seen playing a villain once again, but a unique one, a dwarf.  On Riteish playing villain again in his film, director Milap said, “Riteish’s villainous role had to be better than the last time. I decided to raise the bar by scaling him down in size. Even though he is a dwarf, his character is larger than life. The part is extremely wicked with dark humour, great punch lines and some crazy face-off scenes with Sid.”

Riteish is preparing hard for his character by analysing and observing how someone of that height would walk, gesticulate and run, and is also apparently taking workshops.

The filmmaker has begun the shooting of the film and plans to release it on October 2. The film is being produced by Bhushan Kumar and Emmay Entertainment. What do you think of Riteish playing a dwarf? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.