The senior Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor has been entertaining us for more than 40 years and he has given many hit movies in his career of over four decades.
“Nayak: The Real Hero” which released in 2001 is one of the most loved movies of Anil Kapoor. It was directed by S. Shankar and also starred Rani Mukerji, Amrish Puri, Paresh Rawal, Johnny Lever, etc. in important roles. Though the film didn’t perform well at the box-office, it was loved by the audiences when it got aired on satellite TV and over the years, it has attained a cult status.
Despite the fact that it fell flat at the box-office, it is still called one of the best movies of Anil Kapoor. But do you know that he was not the first choice for the lead role in the film?
“Nayak: The Real Hero” was a remake of the 1999 released Tamil movie “Mudhalvan” which starred Arjun, Manisha Koirala and Raghuvaran in important roles. The Tamil film was also directed by S. Shankar and it is being said that when he thought of making its Hindi remake, he first approached Aamir Khan but he declined the offer because of the political nature of the subject and Shah Rukh rejected the movie citing that he already played the role of a journalist in “Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani” (2000), so he did not want to portray the character of a journalist again.
However, some reports stated that SRK took one Rupee as the signing amount and he assured Shankar that he would give dates for the movie. But Shah Rukh changed his decision after watching the original Tamil movie because he felt that the concept of the one day Chief Minister would not work with the north Indian audiences. Shah Rukh wanted some changes in the script but Shankar wanted to stick to the same storyline because of which both of them parted ways.
Finally, Anil Kapoor was roped in for the lead role and there is no denying the fact that his acting was just superb in the movie and no one could have played this role better than him.
Anil Kapoor is a Jhakaas actor, isn’t he?
