A few days ago it was reported that ‘Bharat‘ director Ali Abbas Zafar is soon going to make a reboot version of the 1987 cult classic Mr India which remains one of the greatest works by actor Anil Kapoor & director Shekhar Kapur.
Zafar posted the news on Twitter informing his fans about the same, but the original director of the film Shekhar Kapur expressed his discontent over the matter on Twitter & said, “No one has even asked me or mentioned to me about this film called Mr India 2. I can only guess that they using the title to get a big weekend. For they cannot use the characters/story without permission from the original creators of the film.”
He even went on saying that, “The argument on a remake of #MrIndia is not that no one took permission from me or even bothered to tell me. The question is. If you are remaking a feature film, based on a director’s very successful work, does the Director have no creative rights over what he/she created?”
As soon as he tweeted all of the above, Co-writer of Mr India &lyricist Javed Akhtar questioned Kapur for making claims over the film. In a tweet, he wrote, “Shekhar saheb, the story, the situations, the scenes, the characters, the dialogue, the lyrics even the title none of these were yours. I gave it all to you. Yes, you execute it very well but how can your claim on the film be more than mine. It wasn’t your idea. It wasn’t your dream.”
The upset director had even tweeted, “We sit with writers from day one, but are not the writer. Help actors hone performances but are not actors. Develop and create visual language of film. Slave hours over editing consoles. Directors lead and inspire every aspect of a film and have no creative rights? #MrIndia”
Earlier, Sonam & Rhea Kapoor too had followed suit for expressing their disapproval on remaking the legendary film. A part of her tweet read, “A lot of people have been asking me about the Mr India remake. Honestly, my father didn’t even know that the film was being remade, we found about it through social media when Ali Abbas Zafar tweeted. It’s quite disrespectful and underhanded, if it is true, since no one bothered to ask my father or Shekhar uncle – two people who made a major role in making the film what it was and what it is.”
