Aamir Khan was the first choice to play villain in Dibakar Banerjee's 'Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!', but chose 'Dhoom 3' over it

The promos of Dibakar Banerjee's 'Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!' with the Kolkata of 1943 as the backdrop have grabbed much attention. The trailer introduced the eponymous under-cover investigator, played by Sushant Singh Rajput, but the identity of the bad man is still under wraps. While the makers remain tight-lipped about it, the grapevine is buzzing with rumours that Aamir Khan was their first choice to play the villain.

Says an insider, "Around the same time when Aditya Chopra narrated the story of Dhoom 3 to Aamir, Dibakar had approached him with his script. Both were challenging, negative roles for two YRF films. He was in a dilemma, but then finally decided to take up the 'Dhoom 3' offer."

Dibakar confirms the report, stating: "I wanted to make 'Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!' after 'Khosla Ka Ghosla'. I was in talks with the studio and we thought the best guy to play the baddie was Aamir. We narrated the script to him. I didn't know that 'Dhoom 3' was on the slate next with Aamir as the villain. He passed on my script.


Two years later, we met after the Byomkesh teaser released and he said he loved it. I guess YRF's gain was YRF's loss."

The filmmaker, however, refrained from revealing the villain's identity.