A few days ago, veteran filmmaker Shekhar Kapur uploaded a string of tweets, calling out director Ali Abbas Zafar. The latter had announced that he was gearing up to helm a trilogy based on the all-time classic Mr India, which starred late legendary actress Sridevi, Anil Kapoor and Amrish Puri. Kapur claimed that Zafar had chosen the title so that his film opens to a “big weekend” at the box office. As the tussle continues, lyricst Javed Akhtar has jumped onto the bandwagon, sharing his two cents on the same. In a recent interview, the ace writer claimed that Kapur should not be offended for not being consulted about the new version of Mr India.

Akhtar revealed Kapur too disregarded the original script for the iconic film. “Today Shekhar Kapur is offended because no one has consulted him about this new project. Why should they? They may or may not be morally bound to inform the people involved with the original film, but they are not legally bound to do so. And where was his sense of creative outrage when he had disregarded the bound script of Mr India that we had given to producer Boney Kapoor and Shekhar?” he questioned.

Javed Akhtar vs Shekhar Kapur

“Shekhar chose to do his own thing back then. Today, when other people are doing the same, he is upset?” he added. Earlier, Shekhar mentioned that Zafar did not need to seek for his permission if he is planning on helming a different film. “But if they are picking the same/similar characters, then they definitely should have. A director has moral rights over his/her creation, especially in a film like Mr India,” he noted. Responding to the allegations Akhtar has levelled against him, Kapur said, “I never read that script. I am a hundred percent sure that what we made finally was very different from what Salim-Javed had written originally. I never saw that original Salim-Javed script, which I believe had been conceived for Mr Amitabh Bachchan. As for what you saw on screen in Mr India, the scenes were written as we were filming. There was a constant improvisation on the sets. Do you know, Mogambo was written after we started shooting? We knew there was going to be a goofy villain who’d have to go beyond Daga and Teja, but we didn’t know who or what it would be. Javed Akhtar was struggling to create a new kind of villain. Mogambo was born as we were filming, just like idea of Sridevi going into the villain’s den dressed as Charlie Chaplin.”