When Avinash Arun told Ujjwal Nikam that Rajkummar Rao would play him in Prahaar: The Untold Story of Ujjwal Nikam, the former public prosecutor had a simpler question than most casting announcements invite: he asked who the actor was.
Speaking to NDTV ahead of the film’s October 16 release, Nikam said he had never seen a Rajkummar Rao film and knew nothing about the National Award winner’s work before the project. He recalled asking, “Avinash ji, who is this Rajkummar?”
The subject became a believer
Arun explained Rao’s reputation as a performer, but the real test came later when Nikam visited the set. The advocate said he found Rao simple and grounded, with no starry airs. “He’s a real actor. I like his nature,” Nikam said, adding that he told Arun he had picked a good actor for the screen portrayal.
By itself, that arc—unknown actor, set visit, endorsement—would be a small casting anecdote. It lands differently because Nikam’s name is attached to a case that shaped India’s counter-terror legal memory. When the person who lived the story reserves judgement until he sees the actor, the film inherits a more intimate standard of credibility.
Nikam, who represented the State in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks trial of Ajmal Kasab, said he was curious to see how Rao captured his personality—voice, nuances and quirks included.
The film stars Wamiqa Gabbi as Nikam’s wife Jyoti and Lalit Prabhakar as Kasab.
A biopic record that keeps growing
For Bollywood Chronicle readers, the story sits inside a longer arc: Rao has made real lives a recurring canvas.
- Shahid
- Aligarh
- Omerta
- Srikanth
- Bose: Dead/Alive
Prahaar extends that list with a courtroom figure whose name is tied to one of modern India’s most consequential trials. The unusual part here is not that Rao took on another real person; it is that the real person had no prior image of him.
What to watch for
The question the film now has to answer is whether the impersonation holds up for the man who lived it. Nikam has already signalled a positive verdict on Rao’s conduct, but the screen test is broader: does the performance carry the prosecutorial restraint, moral weight and local texture that the 26/11 chapter demands?
Rao’s next real-life role is already in production. He is filming Dada, Vikramaditya Motwane’s biopic of Sourav Ganguly.
Source: The Times of India
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