Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur recently got emotional as he remembered late actors, Sridevi, Amrish Puri and Satish Kaushik who were a part of his iconic film, 'Mr India'. The director also revealed that he will not be directing ‘Mr India’ again.
In an interview with a news portal, the director said that he would not be comfortable remaking ‘Mr India’ because he fears that he would fail. According to him, he has never repeated a genre—'Masoom', ‘Mr India’, ‘Bandit Queen’, ‘Elizabeth’, ‘The Four Feathers’, ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It?’ These are all different genres. The director added that he fears that if he repeats himself, he will fail.
Elaborating further, Shekhar said that he would turn to his imaginary 11-year-old self while making ‘Mr India’, who gave him constant feedback and because of whom there was a sense of playfulness in the film. The director added that now if someone asks him to do ‘Mr India’ again, that sense of playfulness and naiveté won’t be there. According to him, it would be like, ‘Mogambo was like this, now he should be like that’, so it would be better for another director to come in and use what they fundamentally believe in and bring that to ‘Mr India’, Shekhar told Indian Express.
The filmmaker also stated that he believes 'Mr India' is the type of film that could lead to a 'Mr India Universe,' similar to how we have the Marvel Universe, with each character having a spin-off story and independent films. According to him, Calendar (Satish Kaushik) would have his own story, different stories with Miss Hawa Hawai (Sridevi), or Mogambo (Amrish Puri) and his kids.
Shekhar also stated that 'Mr India' was most likely India's only universal character film, which he had not seen in another film. He also revealed that people still talk about the cockroach scene.
The director also shared an emotional note remembering Sridevi, Amrish Puri and Satish Kaushik. According to him, the film is alive even though the three main characters are gone.
