Salman Khan’s Chulbul Pandey cameo dropped from Singham Again!

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So you came in late—and did not know that Salman Khan, in his 3-film avatar as Chulbul Pandey from the Dabangg franchise, was to make a “special” cameo appearance in the fourth installment of the Singham franchise. And this film features the entire (current) Rohit Shetty Cop Universe—Singham (Salman’s best friend, Ajay Devgn), Simmba (Ranveer Singh), Sooryavanshi (Akshay Kumar) and the new cop entrants Shakti Shetty (Deepika Padukone) and Satya Pattnaik (Tiger Shroff)!

Well, now you know it. So are you disappointed more than those who knew of it before and were looking forward to it?

Bollywood Hungama has posted a scoop that “fans who were waiting for an epic crossover of Bajirao Singham and Chulbul Pandey in Singham Again are likely to be disappointed as destiny has taken away the biggest moment of 2024.” While Salman Khan was all set to shoot for his cameo on October 14, 2024, the shoot was canceled owing to the demise of politician Baba Siddiqui.”

“The one-day shoot was scheduled to take place at Golden Tobacco in Mumbai. However, owing to the sudden demise of Baba Siddiqui, the shoot was canceled. Rohit and Ajay then had discussions internally and felt that it would be insensitive to request Salman Khan to shoot amid all the controversy. The duo was racing against time to submit their film to the censors, and have decided to submit the film without the appearance of Salman Khan,” reports Bollywood Hungama, quoting a source.

“The source further added that there is a possibility of a back-shot of Chulbul Pandey in the post-credit scene, however, we are not sure if that idea has made it to the final shot or not. Shooting with Salman, just a day or two after the death of Baba Siddiqui, was insensitive. And Rohit had to submit Singham Again to the censors by Friday, October 18. That’s when they took the tough call to move on and respect the privacy of Salman Khan,” the portal goes on.

Siddiqui was a politician close to Khan and was said to be the one who engineered the Salman-Shah Rukh Khan peace that led them to rediscover their friendship after their fracas.

Inside reports talk of a cameo already shot many days ago that did not meet with Salman’s approval. To add to the advantages Singham Again can have over the competing release, it would be great if Shetty retains the older version.

Who, after all, would not like this final coup in the exotic gift that Singham Again promises to be? The next franchises of Simmba and Sooryavanshi after all, will take years to materialize, as I believe Shetty will first get going with the fifth film in the Golmaal franchise after this actioner.