Javed Akhtar had an interesting conversation with Mayank Shekhar of Mid-Day on various aspects of his life and career. At the very beginning, he opened up on why Mr India (1987) didn’t happen with Amitabh Bachchan, as per the original plan.
Javed Akhtar CONFESSES why original choice Amitabh Bachchan wasn’t cast for Mr India: “I didn’t want the tag on me that I broke the Salim-Javed partnership because of some support”
Javed Akhtar first informed how he got the idea for Mr India saying, “Pramod Chakravarty was making a film and I don’t think it ever got made eventually. The leading man in the film was Amitabh Bachchan, who at that time was shooting somewhere in Europe. He had to do the mahurat because of some reason. In his absence, the makers played the recording of Amitabh. That gave me an idea that if this voice was so popular and effective, then why couldn’t we make a film about an invisible man with him? Moreover, he wouldn’t have to give dates as well! He can simply come to do the dubbing. That is how the idea had started. Then we decided to cast kids as children will be fascinated with the film on the invisible man.”
Javed continued, “We never worked much on this concept as we (he and Salim Khan) parted. Then the situation changed. People assumed that since I was very friendly with Amitabh Bachchan, I parted because of that reason. As a result, I didn’t do any film with Amitabh Bachchan for the next 10 years. I had some offers but I declined as I didn’t want the tag on me that I broke the partnership because of some support.”
He added, “The storyline of Mr India remained with me and I developed it completely on my own. I wrote the screenplay and dialogue. There were not many buyers. People were like ‘Yeh is tarah ki film thodi chalti hai’. Many years ago, Mr X (1957) and Mr X In Bombay (1964) were made. The perception was that such films don’t become huge hits. But somehow, Boney Kapoor liked it. He wanted to launch his brother (Anil Kapoor) with a big heroine (Sridevi) and a big production. He bought the rights to the story.”
Javed Akhtar even remembered the day he and Salim Khan separated. He said, “The date was June 21, 1981. The first film I did with Amitabh Bachchan after parting was Main Azaad Hoon (1989).”
More Pages: Mr India Box Office Collection
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