Last year we heard reports of Ajay Devgn being approached for Shankar's next directorial after 2.0. Yes, the movie in question here is Kamal Haasan's Indian 2 and speculations were quite rife about the director approaching the Raid star to play the main antagonist in it. However, Ajay had to politely turn down the offer and we know why. While reports suggested that he wasn't really keen on playing a negative role in a Haasan starrer, he recently cleared all the air surrounding it. In his recent interaction with Mid-Day for Total Dhamaal promotions, when the actor was asked to elaborate on his refusal, he revealed he had date issues. Indian 2 First Look: Kamal Haasan’s Senapathy Is Back With His Paralysing Two-Finger Trick!

When asked why he couldn't take up the project, Ajay said, "I would have loved to do Shankar's movie (Indian 2), but I didn't have the dates. He wanted to shoot the movie right now. [But] I am stuck with Taanaji."  When asked if playing a negative role was his concern, he rubbished the reports saying, "For an artiste, there are no shades of grey, black or white—the more layers you have in a role, the better it is. I loved doing movies like Khakee (2004) and Company (2002) where my negative characters were appreciated. I would love to play such roles again. [Having said that], I cannot say if it [the part in Indian 2] was grey or not because I am not doing it now, it's somebody else's role." Celebs Who Entered Politics in 2018: Kamal Haasan, Rajinikanth Begin Political Careers; BJP Looks to Rope in Madhuri Dixit, Mohanlal For 2019 Lok Sabha Elections.

Well, Ajay's loss is some other actor's gain. Interestingly we also heard reports of Akshay Kumar's name being considered for the same. As per a source close to DNA, "Akshay and Shankar, who became good friends by the time 2.0 was wrapped, had reportedly spoken about working together again when something suitable came their way. And looks like that happened soon after the film’s release.” This is Kamal Haasan's last movie before he devotes all his time to his political career. And this is precisely why this movie is so close to all his fans. Let's hope the makers make the big announcement very soon.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 15, 2019 11:45 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).