Randeep Hooda ousted from Suitable Boy set

Refuting allegations of manhandling make-up man, Randeep Hooda claims he 'moved on after finishing his part in Mira Nair's BBC series

Almost two decades since their wonderful collaboration in Monsoon Wedding [2001], Mira Nair signed Randeep Hooda for her magnum opus, A Suitable Boy, earlier this year. The auteur, who had zeroed in on Tanya Maniktala and Ishaan Khatter for the leads of the eight-part BBC series, was only too happy to have found her Billy Irani — a suave Calcutta-based gentleman in Vikram Seth's best-selling novella — in Hooda. However, what was to be a memorable professional reunion has apparently turned into a bitter experience. mid-day has learnt that days after the project went on floors in September, Hooda was shown the door owing to his alleged misbehaviour.

Mira Nair

A source from the production team reveals, "The cast and crew were stationed at the Hyatt Regency in Lucknow. In the initial leg of his stint, Randeep got into an argument with the make-up man [name undisclosed on request] about the look he was to sport on that day. It started out as a verbal altercation, but things quickly spiralled out of hand as the actor manhandled the make-up artiste. Mira was not present at the scene. However, word soon reached the filmmaker and the matter was duly escalated to the BBC team in the UK. The team promptly took cognisance of the episode, and a day later, they requested Hooda to respectfully bow out of the project."

The source adds that Hooda, since his return to Mumbai thereafter, has been shooting for his next, Radhe with Salman Khan.

A still from the series

When mid-day reached out to Hooda, the actor offered a different version of events. "Firstly, it was not a physical fight, but an argument with my make-up artiste who has worked with me for many years, and is working with me on Radhe. Secondly, I had a brief role on A Suitable Boy, which I did for my love for Mira. Thirdly, I did not exit the project; I finished my four days of work and moved on to other projects."

BBC remained unavailable for comment.

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