… Says actor Anil Kapoor on ‘Mr. INDIA’ screening at Indiana University
Veteran actor Anil Kapoor visited Indiana University on October 7 where his 1987 film MR INDIA was screened for students and staff members. What’s more, describing his experience of watching the film after many years and interacting with the students, the actor says that it was just “amazing”.
The iconic film still remains Anil Kapoor’s, his co-stars Sridevi’s, and Amrish Puri’s most popular film till date. While Anil played a common man with the super powers to be invisible, Amrish Puri played the iconic arch-villain Mogambo in the movie which was made by Shekhar Kapur.
The film was screened for the students and staff of Indiana University, which was followed by an interactive session between the audience and Anil Kapoor. Talking about it, he said, “It was an amazing experience. The first thing I asked curator John was, ‘Why Mr. India? Why not any of my other films?’ He said that there were many reasons. Most of all, because ‘Mr. India’ is India’s first real superhero film.”
“It was three hours long! I asked the students if they wouldn’t be too exhausted for the question and answer session after watching the film for three hours. They not only sat glued to the film, they all stayed on for the interaction. I had forgotten the length and the content. I must have watched it 25 years ago. Did I like
what I saw? Yeah, the film hasn’t dated at all, except for a few sets, which look like sets,” he added.
When asked who his favourite character was in the film after watching MR INDIA after so long, Anil said that he liked the late Amrish Puri the best! Anil replied, “What an actor! And what a performance. Not one flawed moment. Every time he said, ‘Mogambo khush hua’, the Indiana University audience broke into applause. I also loved the performances of the late Ajit Vachchani, Sharad Saxena, Annu Kapoor and Satish Kaushik. I liked myself the least. I could’ve done a lot better.”
Interestingly, Anil added that he was as curious about the students as they were about him during the interactive session as he too ended up asking the students about themselves. “I had as many questions for them as they had for me. Understandably, they were not only asking about MR INDIA, but also about my other films, about my life and career. They wanted to know if we were going to do a sequel and who would play the roles… I said if they were, there would a replacement for every actor. But no one can play Amrish Puri’s part,” he said.
