If all goes well, Shah Rukh Khan will return to his bad boy image, which catapulted him to success. Shah Rukh has been offered the role of the famous villain Mogambo in Shekhar Kapur's Mr India 2. The film is a sequel to the 1987 hit Mr India starring Anil Kapoor and Sridevi and will be produced by Manmohan Shetty and Boney Kapoor.
Apparently, Shekhar, who is good friends with Shah Rukh made this offer to SRK recently. Whether Shah Rukh has given his nod of consent is not known. But Shekhar, who is in charge of the creative departement of the film, is very keen that Shah Rukh accepts his offer. Till now, Shekhar has been very discreet about it. SRK too is expected to keep a low profile about the role until he agrees to take up the challenge. A source close to Shekhar said, “Shekhar is not making Paani now. So all his energies are now focussed towards getting the casting of Mr India 2 right.”
But why SRK? Our source explained, “This film will also star Anil Kapoor and Sridevi as in the original but the script has been turned to be make it more villain centric. Today, there are very few villains who have the towering personality required for the Mogambo type of role, which was played with flourish by the late Amrish Puri in the original. And who better than Shah Rukh, who has excelled in negative roles like Baazigar and Darr, to play the role?”
Apparently, K K Menon was the earlier choice and was also in talks with the makers. However, with the script now being turned around to be villain-centric, it was the need of the hour to rope in a big star for the role.
The source added, “It will be the role of a lifetime for Shah Rukh. There will tremendous curiosity about how he enacts it. Yes, the film Mr India is a big name by itself but people will flock to the theatres more because Shah Rukh is getting into the shoes of Amrish Puri than for the film itself.”
So who will direct the film? Could it be Shekhar now that Paani is on the backburner? Our source said, “That is a decision which has still not been taken. Shekhar is keen that Anurag Basu should take on the mantle but Anurag is busy with Kites till March and Shekhar wants to begin Mr India 2 before that.”
When contacted about SRK doing Mogambo's role, Boney said, “Mr India is a brand which has to be nurtured. The recall value of this film is high. So who wouldn't want the best of everything? Whatever Shekhar is doing (read: casting), he is doing entirely on his own.”
We checked with Manmohan Shetty about the details. He claimed that he didn't know that Shah Rukh was the first choice for Mogambo. Manmohan said, “The casting of Mr India 2 is entirely Shekhar's domain.” Despite repeated calls and a text message, Shekhar did not revert.
