Maharaj starring Junaid Khan and Jaideep Ahlawat received a positive response from critics and masses. Despite a court ban ahead of the release, Siddharth Malhotra's directorial is well received by cinephiles. The movie based on the Maharaj Libel case starred Junaid as Karsandas Mulji, a journalist and social reformer while Jaideep Ahlawat portrayed a godman named Jadunath aka JJ. Well, it is interesting to know that Irfan Khan was the first choice for the role of the antagonist. 

Yash Raj Films hosted a success press conference which was attended by the star cast, Junaid Khan, Jaideep Ahlawat, Sharvari Wagh, Shalini Pandey, and director Siddharth P Malhotra. During the media interaction, the director revealed he couldn’t have thought of anyone but Irrfan Khan for Jaideep Ahlawat’s role. He said, “The only person we could think of for the role of Maharaj was Irrfan. God bless his soul. In our opinion, nobody could play this role but Irrfan Khan. It’s a lot of pressure for Jaideep sir. Yet, I keep telling him again and again that there’s only one actor in this universe who could match Irrfan’s level of performance. And that is Jaideep Ahlawat. He can do anything.”

He even praised Jaideep Ahlawat who played the antagonist. He was quoted saying, “He's one of the best actors we have today in the country, undoubtedly. Convincing him for Maharaj was a tough task because he declined the role at first. He was unsure how he would play it. We had to do a narration with him to explain to him what our take on Maharaj was. We were very grateful that sir agreed and came on board. He’s rightfully getting all the love that he gets for every film.”

Jaideep Ahlawat impressed the audience with his outstanding acting in Maharaj playing the negative role of godman Jadunath Maharaj aka JJ. The period drama is based on the real story of the Maharaj Libel case of 1862. Maharaj is now streaming on Netflix.