New Delhi:
Shekhar Kapoor directed a film produced by Boney Kapoor and Surinder Kapoor in 1987. This film was written by Salim-Javed. The film was commercially successful and became the second highest grossing film of the year at the box office. The film made for Rs 2 crore earned Rs 10 crore. It was also a hit in China. Lead actors were well liked in this film. We are talking about Cultic Classic Mr. India, in which Anil Kapoor, Sridevi and Amrish Puri performed well. Amrish Puri received a lot of accolades in the role of Mogambo and his dialogue was also well liked. Anil got stardom from this film, but do you know that he was not the first choice for this role?
Anil Kapoor was not the first choice in Mr. India
According to reports, Rajesh Khanna’s name was first considered for the lead role in Mr. India. In fact, Salim-Javed wrote the script keeping them in mind. However, a year later he felt that he was not right for this character. Therefore, he decided to contact someone else. After Rajesh Khanna, another superstar was offered this role, but finally Anil Kapoor got it. Salim-Javed also contacted Amitabh Bachchan along with the script.
Amitabh Bachchan liked the script, but he was not sure about the superhero genre. Therefore, he allegedly rejected the film. After Amitabh Bachchan rejected, the script went to Boney Kapoor and suggested his brother’s name for the role of a hero. Anil also liked the script and immediately agreed to do it.
Mr. India was a big success. Director and actors benefited greatly from this film. In Hindi cinema, it became a milestone for its rare superhero style, after which many Indian films were made in later years. It was named in Tamil as An Raththin Rathme (1989) and Jai Karnataka (1989) in Kannada.