Shah Rukh Khan  Replaces Aamir  In Rakesh Sharma Bio-Pic

It’s confirmed. Not Aamir Khan.But Shah Rukh Khan who will play astronaut Rakesh Sharma in  the  bio-pic Salute produced  by SidharthRoy Kapur and directed  by Mahesh Mathai.

And the changeover is , according to very reliable sources, “very smooth stress-free and amicable”

Apparently Aamir personally met Shah Rukh Khan to tell him that the role is worth his, Shah Rukh’s,  while.

Says an informed source, “So the first question Shah Rukh would’ve asked Aamir is, if it’s such a great role why are  you  not doing it  yourself? Before that poser Aamir explained to Shah Rukh that  he ,Aamir,intended to  devote at least ten years  of his life to a very dear project, presumably the Mahabharat, and has therefore stopped accepting any other assignments. Aamir strongly recommended theRakesh Sharma  bio-pic to Shah Rukh as a script worth walking that extra mile for .”

 After  deep discussions  and long meetings with Siddharth RoyKapur, Shah Rukh has been signed to play Rakesh Sharma.

Sources totally discard  the other names thrown around  for  the part.

“It was mentioned that Ranbir Kapoor and Ranveer Singh were approached and that they turned  down the role.Not true at all. The role went straight from Aamir to Shah Rukh.”

Interestingly Salute is not Shah Rukh’s first brush with the space and astronomy. He had played a NASA engineer in Ashutosh Goawriker’sSwades. Little did he know he would return to that milieu.

 Salute to that.