I am not doing Shakti: Amitabh Bachchan

The Internet creaked with a fake furore this week when an overzealous portal reported that Ramesh Sippy’s 1982 failed classic Shakti, featuring the mighty Dilip Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan as father and son, was being remade by producer Harish Sugandh.

However, Sugandh completely denies this report. “It is not possible to remake Shakti today. The report is completely untrue. My son and my nephew are planning a film together, but it’s got nothing to do with Shakti. Why would we remake Shakti? It was a classic, no doubt, but it didn’t click on release. Where would I get Dilip Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan, who are the A-Z of film acting?” he asks.

Sughandh also laughs off reports that Bachchan will play Kumar’s role. “These writers are even doing their own casting. There is no truth to this at all. Shakti was a very dry subject. We are not even thinking of remaking it,” he clarifies.

Meanwhile, even Big B’s response to the idea of a Shakti remake was an immediate no. “I am not doing Shakti again. I am not playing Dilip sahab’s role.”

When Ramesh Sippy, who directed Shakti in 1982, was asked if he would like to cast Bachchan in Kumar’s role in the remake, he quickly snapped back, “I’d never remake my film. When I was working with Amitabh Bachchan, I was asked if he would be the next Dilip Kumar. When I was working with Shah Rukh Khan, I was asked if he would be the next Amitabh Bachchan. In the future, another actor would be asked if he’s the next Shah Rukh. There is no need to look back, one needs to look ahead,” he says.

Shakti was inspired by a hit Tamil film Thanga Pathakkam from 1960, where Sivaji Ganesan played an honest police constable who guns down his own truant son played by Srikanth.

Ramesh Sippy bought the rights of the Tamil film, and the son’s role was to be played by Raj Babbar who was then completely new to movies. Raj auditioned for the part, he was even paid a signing amount, but he was dropped when the Big B showed an interest in playing the son’s part. Raakhee Gulzar took the risk of turning prematurely into a screen mother, and Satish Shah made his screen debut as well (He was one of the ruffians who accosts Smita Patil in the local train). Anil Kapoor made a guest appearance at the beginning and end of the film as Dilip Kumar’s grandson and Amitabh Bachchan’s son. The film is narrated in a flashback with Anil listening to the story of his dead father’s life.

There was no scope for songs in the film, but R. D. Burman managed to squeeze in a popular Lata-Kishore duet Jaane Kaise Kab Kahaan.