Rajesh Khanna Was The First Choice For The 1984 Blockbuster Mr. India But Why Did He Turn It Down?

With women swooning at his feet and nearly every director and producer wanting to make a film with him the story of Rajesh Khanna, the first superstar is intriguing as it gets. But not many people know that director Shekhar Kapur wrote his 1984 blockbuster Mr. India keeping Rajesh Khanna in mind. Yes! The veteran actor was the first choice to play the invisible hero in Mr. India, a role that Anil Kapoor earned many accolades for, but Rajesh Khanna turned down the film. He couldn’t quite wrap his head around the idea of a hero whose uniqueness lies in his invisibility and the role was passed on.

Interestingly second in the line was Amitabh Bachchan whose was approached and like Rajesh Khanna, Big B too did understand the whole invisible bit and rejected Shekhar Kapur’s offer. The twice rejected film was then taken up by Anil Kapoor who became an icon as an invisible superhero.

Mr. India also starred Sridevi, Amrish Puri, and Satish Kaushik and was one of the highest grossing films of 1984.