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The Past Blast: Dilip Kumar, Abhishek Bachchan, Bipasha Basu and a dream debut, that got shelved
The films that never saw day of light. When Dilip Kumar, Abhishek Bachchan, and Bipasha Basu were to collaborate on Akhri Mughal. Details
With Amitabh Bachchan dominating the Hindi film industry for almost 3 decades, Bollywood was all gearing up to launch his son, Abhishek Bachchan in the late 90s in the best possible manner. Multiple projects were being worked upon to mark his foray into Hindi films, and one of the most exciting of them was Akhri Mughal by JP Dutta. Riding high on the success of Border, JP Dutta almost pulled off what could have been among the biggest debut for an actor. The filmmaker was planning a period film titled Akhri Mughal with Dilip Kumar as Bahadur Shah Zafar and Abhishek Bachchan as his son, Mirza Mughal. It was based on an unfinished script by Kamal Amrohi, which JP Dutta had officially acquired from the family.
Akhri Mughal was to mark the acting debut of Bipasha Basu as well, and the story revolved around the last of the last Mughal emperor and the fall thereon. Industry circles reveal that back in the 90s the Bachchan family was clear that the first film of Jr. B would not feature his father, Big B. And that’s the reason when JP Dutta decided to bring the king of tragedy, the Thespian, Dilip Kumar on board to play Abhishek’s father. The casting coup had got the industry circles rolling, because it would have been a life coming full circle with Dilip Kumar playing a father to both Amitabh Bachchan (In Shakti) and Abhishek Bachchan.
The film went on floors, with Amitabh Bachchan (as a guest of honour) himself being present on the set on first day of shoot with Abhishek, Bipasha and other members of the crew. However, after shooting for some days, the film was shelved due to reasons best known to the cast and eventually, JP Dutta decided to launch Abhishek Bachchan with another script close to his heart, Refugee. The cast also underwent a 360-degree makeover, with Kareena Kapoor coming on board as the female lead.
Around a decade after the release of Refugee, there was a strong buzz in the media of JP Dutta trying to revive Akhri Mughal with Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan, however, nothing materialized in that front and the film still remains a dream project for all the stakeholders. Interestingly, Kamal Amrohi’s version of Akhri Mughal in the 1970’s was to feature Dharmendra in the lead.
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