Sonam slams new ‘Mr India’ film
Actress’ dad Anil Kapoor played the lead in the 1987 blockbuster
Bollywood actress Sonam Kapoor, the daughter of Anil Kapoor, and acclaimed director Shekhar Kapur expressed their disappointment at not being informed or consulted about a new Mr India film being made. The 1987 blockbuster, starring Anil Kapoor as lead, was a pathbreaker in Bollywood.
Sonam called the development ‘underhanded’ and ‘disrespectful’ to the artists involved in the original.
“My father didn’t even know that the film was being remade, we found out about it through social media when Ali Abbas Zafar [director] tweeted it. It’s quite disrespectful and underhanded if it is true and no one bothered to consult my father or Shekhar uncle, two people who played a major role in making the film what it was and is,” she said on her social media handles.
Last week, director Ali Abbas Zafar and producers Zee Studios made the announcement of a trilogy, calling it a re-imagining of the iconic 1987 blockbuster
Mr India. Their version will feature superheroes, they claimed.
Mr India remains an iconic Bollywood sci-fi fantasy that released in 1987 starring Anil Kapoor and the late actress Sridevi.
Director Kapur threw his weight behind Sonam’s thoughts and condemned being kept in the dark.
“No one has even asked me or mentioned to me about this film called Mr India 2. I can only guess that they are using to title to get a big weekend. For they cannot use the characters/story without permission from the original creators of the film,” said Kapur on his Twitter handle.
Javed Akhtar, the co-writer of the original Mr India, feels that the makers behind the sequel aren’t legally bound to inform the artists from the original.
Reports that Shah Rukh Khan will play the villain and that Arjun Kapoor or Ranveer Singh will play the part played by Anil are doing the rounds now.
Last week, Shariq Patel, CEO of Zee Studios, had stressed that the trilogy isn’t a sequel of
Mr India.