Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra recently revealed that acclaimed English actor Daniel Craig had auditioned for his 2006 film Rang De Basanti. The filmmaker made the revelation in his autobiography The Stranger in the Mirror, co-written by Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta. He recalled how producers David Reid and Adam Bowling were instrumental in the casting of Alice Patten and Steven Mackintosh as Sue and James McKinley, respectively.
But another promising young actor had tested for the role of James McKinley, the filmmaker recalled. "I remember vividly that one of the people who auditioned for the part of James McKinley, the young jailor who walks Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev to be hanged, was none other than current James Bond, Daniel Craig," he wrote.
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The director continued, "Daniel Craig was my first choice but he requested if we could allow some time as he was also being considered to be the next James Bond. The rest, as they say, is history."
Rang De Basanti was chosen as India's official entry for the Golden Globe Awards and the Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category.
