Shekhar Kapur slams Ali Abbas Zafar’s trilogy on Mr India

Producer Boney Kapoor has often spoken about the possibility of a sequel to his Mr India (1987), including in a chat with us in 2017. But yesterday, filmmaker Ali Abbas Zafar and Zee Studios announced a trilogy on Mr India and shared the news on Twitter. This move was slammed by Shekhar Kapur, director of the original movie. 

Zafar took to Twitter and shared the news saying, “Excited to partner with Zee Studios for an epic trilogy Mr India! It is a huge responsibility to carry forward an iconic character loved by everyone. Currently, working on the script, no actor has been locked till now.  Once we lock the first draft of the script, casting begins.”  

Zafar didn’t mention Boney Kapoor at all. This is surprising as the rights of the 1987 film belong to him as producer. When we contacted Kapoor, we didn’t receive any response. Following this, we contacted Zafar, who refused to comment on whether Kapoor was a part of the project, and asked us to talk to Zee Studios instead. 

A couple of hours later, Zee Studios shared Zafar’s tweet and tagged Kapoor on it. The studio too refused to comment on whether Kapoor was on board as a co-producer, or that they had just bought the rights to the movie.

Commenting on the announcement, Kapur stated in his official Twitter page, “No one has even asked me or mentioned this film called Mr India 2 to me.  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.” 

For those who came in late, Mr India starred Anil Kapoor, Sridevi, Amrish Puri, Satish Kaushik and Aftab Shivdasani and was directed by Shekhar Kapur. The film was about a man, who uses his ability to become invisible with the help of a device, to stop the evil Mogambo from destroying India.