After requests from Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan says yes to Rakesh Sharma biopic

Aamir Khan, after backing out of the Rakesh Sharma biopic, has been able to persuade Shah Rukh Khan to take up the project, say reports.

Shah Rukh Khan has reportedly agreed to play the only Indian to travel to space, Rakesh Sharma. The actor took up the project after insistence from Aamir Khan, according to a report in Deccan Chronicle.

Aamir himself was supposed to play the title role in the film, rumoured to be titled Salute, but backed out of the project. He then personally met Shah Rukh and asked him to star in the film. The film will be produced by Sidharth Roy Kapur and Mahesh Mathai of Broken Thread and Bhopal Express has been roped in as the director.

“Aamir strongly recommended the Rakesh Sharma biopic to Shah Rukh as a script worth walking that extra mile for. More so, since Aamir intends to devote a substantial period of his time to a very dear project of his, presumably the Mahabharat, and has stopped accepting any other assignments currently,” a source told the daily.

Rakesh Sharma is a former Air Force Pilot who flew aboard Soyuz T-11 in 1984, as part of a joint program between the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Soviet Intercosmos space program. Sharma, now 68, spent 7 days 21 hours and 40 minutes in space and remains to this day the only Indian to travel to space. When asked by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to describe how India looks from outer space, he simply said ‘Saare Jahan Se Accha,’ which is also the other purported title of his film.

Shah Rukh will soon be seen in Anand L Rai’s film with Anushka Sharma and Katrina Kaif in which he plays a dwarf. Aamir will be seen in Thugs of Hindostan with Amitabh Bachchan, Katrina Kaif and Fatima Sana Shaikh.