‘Mr. India’ was originally conceived for Amitabh Bachchan and not Anil Kapoor, Javed Akhtar says: ‘If this voice is so popular, it is so effective’
Anil Kapoor’s ‘Mr. India’ was one of the most popular films of the actor. Over the years, it remains iconic because it was ahead of its time. The performance of every song, concept and camphor keeps talking about till date. But do you know that the film was originally imagined for Amitabh Bachchan, after the author’s pair was inspired by his baritone voice by Salim Javed (Salim Khan, Javed Akhtar).In an interview recently, Javed Akhtar revealed how the concept was actually developed, but things did not work as Salim and Javed partition. Later, Akhtar developed the script of ‘Mr. India’, all by themselves. He said, “He had to be happy, and for some reason, he recorded the voice of Amitabh and played it during the shot of Murat. So, it gave me an idea – if this voice is so popular, it’s so effective that we can’t make an invisible man with him?He further revealed that the angle of children was added as the children would be fascinated by the idea of an invisible person. When Javed developed the final draft, the entire screenplay, dialogue alone with Salim Khan after his partition, he found no person who was ready to believe in the script and produce the film. Akhtar said, “I developed it completely on my own, wrote the script, wrote the dialogue.Boney Kapoor eventually decided to produce it as she liked the concept and wanted to make a film for a big actress like her younger brother and Sridevi. Regarding Bachchan’s presence in the film, some time ago, in a book by Deeptkirti Chaudhuri, titled ‘Written by Salim-Javed: The story of the greatest screenwriter of Hindi cinema’, he revealed that during a conversation with journalist Anita Padhi, Salim Khan said that it is not the concept. However, the authors believed that Bachchan’s voice would be the star of the film.
