Mr India was originally conceived for Amitabh Bachchan before Salim-Javed's split, Javed Akhtar reveals: ‘I developed it completely on my own'

Indian Express

10-05-2025

It's hard to imagine Mr. India without Anil Kapoor, but veteran screenwriter Javed Akhtar recently revealed that he wasn't the first choice for the role. In a recent interview with Mid-Day India, Javed revealed that the original inspiration behind the film came from none other than Amitabh Bachchan, who is known for his baritone.
Recalling how the idea was sparked, he said that during a film's muhurat (launch), that was to be done by Amitabh Bachchan, the actor was not available in person. So, it was decided that his voice would be played at the muhurat. 'He had to do the mahurat, and because of some reason, they recorded the voice of Amitabh and played it during the muhurat shot. So, that gave me an idea — if this voice is so popular, so effective, why can't we make the Invisible Man with him? We wouldn't have to take his dates also. Most of the time, we could shoot and he would later dub his voice… That is how the idea started,' he shared.
He also recalled how he wanted to weave in a children's emotional angle, believing kids would be fascinated by the idea of an invisible man. However, the idea came to a halt after his professional split with longtime writing partner Salim Khan.
Returning to the development of Mr India, Javed recalled writing the story, screenplay, and dialogue on his own — but initially, there were no takers. 'I developed it completely on my own, wrote the screenplay, dialogue. People were like, 'Arey invisible man… arey ye effect… yeh iss tarah ki films thodi chalti hai… it's a gimmick… woh thodi hit hoti hai… pehli bani Mr X, Ashok Kumar was the hero… then Mr X in Bombay… itna badi hit nahi hoti aisi films.'' (People said, 'Oh, invisible man… these kinds of effects… these kinds of films don't usually work, it's a gimmick… they get a little popular, that's it… there was Mr. X with Ashok Kumar, then Mr. X in Bombay, films like these never become major hits).
However, things changed when producer Boney Kapoor came onboard. According to Javed, Boney liked the concept and wanted to use it to launch his younger brother Anil Kapoor alongside a big-name actress — which finally got the film off the ground.
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Javed said that many believed that the reason behind his split with Salim Khan was his closeness with Amitabh Bachchan, but that wasn't the case, which is why he stayed away from working with Big B for the next decade. 'Many people thought, because I was very friendly with Amitabh Bachchan, because I was closer to him, so I parted because of that. So for the next ten years, I didn't do any film with Amitabh Bachchan. I had some offers, but I didn't take them because I didn't want this tag on me that I broke this partnership because of some support,' he said.
In the book titled 'Written by Salim-Javed: The Story of Hindi Cinema's Greatest Screenwriters' by Diptakirti Chaudhuri, this incident is revisited in detail. As per the author, Salim Khan gave a lengthy interview to journalist Anita Padhye for her Marathi book 'Yahi Rang, Yahi Roop' where he spoke about the same. He shared that the director duo presented this idea to Amitabh but the Sholay actor wasn't keen on it. Apparently, Bachchan believed that the invisible-man concept wouldn't work as his fans came to the theatres to see him. The writers believed that Bachchan's voice would be the star of the show, and as per him, this triggered the end of their writing partnership.