The 2013 sports drama was based on the life of Olympian Milkha Singh. Mehra said though Farhan's age was wrong for the story, he instinctively chose the multi-faceted star for the movie.
"Farhan came as an instinctive choice. His age was wrong- Farhan was 36, Milkha was 22. But I felt out of all the auditions I had seen he was the best. There were three people who stood out- one was a new actor called Nitish, one was Ranveer Singh, who was quite crazy and then Farhan," Mehra said on the sidelines of IFFI.
"Bhaag Milkha Bhaag" also starred Sonam Kapoor, Divya Dutta, Pavan Malhotra, Yograj Singh and Prakash Raj.