Ethan Hawke was considered for Bollywood film Shor in The City: Why his debut fell through

Dubai: More than a decade after its release, filmmakers Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK have revealed that Ethan Hawke was once being considered for the film, part of an early version that looked quite different from what audiences eventually saw.

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The version that never happened

In an interview with The Indian Express they shared that in its initial stages, Shor in the City reportedly included a storyline about an American entrepreneur coming to India to start a business.

Hawke, known for his long association with indie cinema, was one of the names the directors explored for the role. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was also briefly in the conversation. And both actors were pitched the script.

"We even had a couple of meetings with their agents. But they’re used to functioning within a certain kind of system, there’s usually some studio backing, even if it’s a small one in Los Angeles." They shared.

It didn’t go far beyond early talks. At the time, the film didn’t have the kind of backing that made international casting easy. The project was being pieced together independently, and bringing in a Hollywood actor, logistically and financially wasn’t realistic.

So that thread was dropped. The script shifted, and what emerged instead was a tightly woven, local story rooted entirely in Mumbai’s chaos.

A darker film under the surface

The casting anecdote isn’t the only thing that’s come up. The directors also spoke about an alternate ending that was screened at festivals, one that leaned much darker than the theatrical version. They hinted that the film's ending was originally more ambiguous, before being adding an additional ending due to wide audience request.

In fact, while discussing that earlier cut, they joked that in that version, the character played by Tusshar Kapoor "might actually be dead and what he’s experiencing, the visions, could be something like a post-death state." The ending was eventually reworked to show each character drifting into their own separate paths in life.

When Shor in the City released in 2011, it built a following for its raw storytelling and street-level view of Mumbai. Looking back, it feels like a blueprint for the kind of work Raj & DK would later become known for, including The Family Man. The idea that it could have featured an international actor like Hawke adds another layer to its backstory.