Did you know Daniel Craig had auditioned for Rang De Basanti?

The news that David Craig had auditioned for Rang De Basanti was revealed recently in the autobiography of filmmaker Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. It further stated that the actor could not take up the role as he was offered James Bond at the same time. The filmmaker’s autobiography, titled ‘The Stranger in the Mirror’ is co-written with Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta.

The particular segment of the book talks how producers David Reid and Adam Bowling were behind the casting of Alice Patten and Steven Mackintosh as Sue and James McKinley, respectively. And that is when he came to know that Daniel Craig had also auditioned for the role of James McKinley.

“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,” the filmmaker has written in his book. “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,” he added.

Daniel Craig made his debut as the next James Bond in Casino Royale in the year 2006, the same year when the Indian film Rang De Basanti was released.While Casino Royale shot Daniel Craig to international fame, Rang .De Basanti was also an enormous commercial success.