Randeep Hooda felt bad when Ranbir Kapoor replaced him in Highway promotions; "I was confused"

Randeep Hooda is an actor par excellence who has proved his worth and potential with every film he has worked in. Some of his films have gone down in history, and some of his performances have etched a mark in the hearts of people-—one such performance would be his role as Mahabir Bhati in Imtiaz Ali's Highway. Randeep is currently keeping busy with the promotions of his new film 'Jaat' where he plays the role of an antagonist opposite Sunny Deol, and recently, amidst all the promotional events, he took a moment to reflect back on how he felt being excluded from the promotions of his film Highway.

Imtiaz Ali's 'Highway' is an absolute cult film that critics and cinema enthusiasts still keep referring to as an absolute masterclass. The 2014 film had opted for a subtle yet effective way of promoting the film, but during the promotional events, many had felt that Randeep Hooda, who was the male lead of the film, had been left out of those events. In a chat with Shubhankar Mishra for his YouTube channel, Randeep spoke about what went down during the promotions of Highway. 

Randeep said, "I felt really bad. If I would have gotten support at that time, it would have helped my career."

Even though Randeep was not much involved during the promotions, Alia's now-husband and actor Ranbir Kapoor majorly was. Talking about the same, Randeep mentioned, "Maine bhi voh dekha aur mujhe bhi samajh nahi aaya Ranbir Kapoor ka iss picture se kya lena dena hai (I also saw that and I also did not understand what Ranbir Kapoor has to do with this film)." 

Ranbir at that time was doing back-to-back films with Imtiaz Ali; he had done Rockstar with him in 2011 and was also a part of Tamasha, which Ali had directed right after Highway and was released in 2015. According to reports that had surfaced earlier, Ranbir, during that time, had seen a few clippings of the film and had then joined Imtiaz and Alia to shoot for a promotional video at Film City. 

Coming back to Randeep, the actor mentioned that the makers of Highway probably brought in Ranbir for the promotions because the film was gaining traction towards the last couple of days. In the same conversation, he said that maybe it was a strategy to focus on Alia Bhatt during the promotions since the film was based on how women are exploited. Lastly, he also went back to the promotional video that  and Alia had shot and said that that video could have been the start of their love story. 

He said, "Shayad vahi se shaadi shuruvat hui aur main unn dono ko mubarakbaad deta hu. Isse agar unka jeewan aapas mein mila toh main isse bohot khush hu (Perhaps that is where the marriage started and I congratulate both of them. If this brings their lives together, then I am very happy with it)."