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‘Salim-Javed sued us for remaking Zanjeer, producer thought giving Javed saab a Nature’s Basket tokri would be enough’: Apoorva Lakhia

Apoorva Lakhia recalled when Salim-Javed sued the makers of the Zanjeer remake, any why he cast Ram Charan in the title role.

Javed Akhtar talks about splitting up with Salim Khan. (Photo: Express Archives)

Years before RRR, Ram Charan made his debut in the Hindi film industry with the remake of Amitabh Bachchan’s 1973 hit Zanjeer. The film was directed by Apoorva Lakhia, and, in a recent interview, the filmmaker shared one of the many reasons why he has disassociated from the experience. He revealed that they got sued by writers Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, who penned the original, while making the movie. One of the producers of Zanjeer was Amit Mehra, the son of Prakash Mehra, the producer-director of the original film. Amit claimed that he had the rights to the film and sought Javed Akhtar’s blessings with a tokri (gift basket) from Nature’s Basket, but Javed instantly told him that this wasn’t going to be enough.

Apoorva shared with Friday Talkies, “We got sued by Salim-Javed and we lost the case.” He said that since “bad blood and bad karma” was associated with the film, the budget increased by three times. He said that during the court proceedings, Javed Akhtar’s daughter, Zoya Akhtar, called him up and asked to stay away since he was the director, since the trouble was actually between the producer and Salim-Javed.

He recalled that Amit Mehra went to Javed Akhtar’s house but did not get the hint that a gift basket (tokri) wasn’t going to be enough. “He took a tokri (basket) from Nature’s Basket. And Javed saab told him that this basket wouldn’t suffice. That basket was for some Rs 6,000-7,000 and it had some kind of cheese or whatever, things that Javed saab doesn’t even eat. He said ‘Beta, congratulations, lekin tokri se toh kaam nahi chalega. (Congratulations son, but the basket won’t suffice).’ But he didn’t get it,” he recalled.

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Apoorva also said that he thought that casting Ram Charan would be a smart move as the Hindi cinema audience wasn’t aware of him at the time. “I don’t think people were ready for Ram Charan,” he said, and added that he could have either cast Abhishek Bachchan, or a newcomer without any baggage. “If I would have cast Abhishek, that would have made sense because the son is doing the father’s role. If I would have cast someone else, then they would have compared him to Amit ji because they must have seen that actor somewhere. But Ram Charan, no one had seen him yet. So we thought this would be an ideal role for Chiranjeevi’s son to do an Amitabh Bachchan film and come into the film industry,” he said.

Zanjeer also starred Priyanka Chopra, Sanjay Dutt, Prakash Raj, Mahie Gill.

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