Did you know Amitabh Bachchan was supposed to headline Mr. India instead of Anil Kapoor? Details inside

‘Mogambo khush hua!’ Cinephiles who live and breathe Indian cinema will immediately be able to guess the movie from which this iconic dialogue is. For those who couldn’t, this is one of the iconic dialogues from the 1987 film Mr. India. Directed by Shekhar Kapur and produced jointly by Boney Kapoor and Surinder Kapoor, the film starred Anil Kapoor in the titular role. He also shared screen time with the late actors Sridevi and Amrish Puri.

Now when we think of it, we can’t imagine anyone but Anil Kapoor playing the lead role in the film. But did you know, megastar Amitabh Bachchan was supposed to headline the film?

Boney Kapoor makes a big revelation

In an interview with ETimes, producer Boney Kapoor was asked whether things fell into place for the mega-hit movie Mr. India itself. Answer to this question Kapoor revealed that the film was planned with Amitabh Bachchan as its hero. Moreover, Ramesh Sippy was supposed to be its director.

Revealing the reason for the change of plan, Kapoor said that after launching his brother Anil Kapoor in the film Woh Saat Din (1983), he wanted to again work with the film's director Bapu. But since Woh Saat Din was a remake, the producer didn’t want to work on it. Hence, he asked writer Javed Akhtar to write a new script. But sadly, Bapu got a little impatient and the project was scrapped.

Mr. India was initially planned with Amitabh Bachchan as the hero

Sharing how they narrowed down on working on Mr. India with Anil Kapoor, Boney said, “I had heard the story of Mr. India after Woh Saat Din. Javed Akhtar saab, Naresh Goyal, and I were supposed to make Mr. India with Ramesh Sippy as the director and Amitabh Bachchan as the hero. But it didn’t work out. So, once when Javed saab and I were sitting, I said, 'Let’s do this picture.' He said, 'It’s an expensive picture. GP Sippy was in two minds to make it with Amitabh Bachchan. How can you make it with Anil Kapoor?”

But despite opinion clashes, Boney went ahead with it and ended up making the most advantageous decision of his life. He divulged, "I said that we will make it. In those times, when big films with top stars were mounted with 1 and 1.5 crores, I made a film for 3 crore and 20 lakh rupees. I was 80 lakhs deficit on release, but in the first year itself, I got the money and name, and the film is remembered even today."

About Mr. India

The superhero film became a milestone in Hindi cinema. It emerged as a commercial success and ended up being the second highest-grossing film of 1987.

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