Shark Tank India’s Anupam Mittal recalls watching ‘terrible’ Aag with Amitabh Bachchan and Ram Gopal Varma, says Big B ‘had absolutely zero expression’

Admitting that it was a 'terrible film', Shark Tank India's Anupam Mittal revealed that he was involved in Ram Gopal Varma's Aag as a sponsor.

By: Entertainment Desk

New Delhi | May 4, 2023 12:48 PM IST

3 min read

Ram Gopal Varma's Aag remains one of Bollywood's most notorious duds.

Listen to this article

Your browser does not support the audio element.

Shark Tank India’s Anupam Mittal revealed in a new interview that he was involved in Aag, Ram Gopal Varma’s infamous remake of Sholay, and recalled watching the film with RGV and star Amitabh Bachchan in attendance. Anupam said that he grew up watching Bachchan’s films, but fell out of love with Bollywood during the 90s, when Kader Khan and Shakti Kapoor’s comedy movies ruled the roost.

He told Anupama Chopra on the All About Movies podcast that his interest in Bollywood was renewed in the 2000s, when Ram Gopal Varma changed the landscape with his grittier Hindi movies. “I shouldn’t say this, but in the 90s, there was the Kader Khan-Shakti Kapoor duo, and a lot of cheesy films started coming out, and I kind of switched to Hollywood,” he said.

Also read | ‘Amitabh Bachchan stopped his car when he saw Mithun Chakraborty travelling in a tempo, offered him a lift’: Son Namashi on Big B, his father’s friendship

Recalling his story about RGV Ki Aag, he said, “In the early 2000s, I saw a small window where a lot of good work started happening in India. Ramu started making films, and we did some work with him, in fact, his movie Ramu Ke Sholay, I forget the title… At Mauj Mobile we’d launched the first game, and we had sponsored the film.” At this point, he was told that Aag was a ‘terrible film’, and Anupam agreed. “It was,” he said, adding, “I actually watched it with Mr Bachchan and Ramu, the three of us sitting together.”

Asked what happened, he said, “And, well, all you could do was look at each other and say, ‘good work’. I could see Mr Bachchan had absolutely zero expression on his face, I think he knew it. But it’s okay, it’s creative work, nobody starts out wanting to make a flop…”

RGV Ki Aag, a remake of the iconic hit Sholay, remains one of Bollywood’s most loathed films of all time. It also starred Ajay Devgn, Mohanlal and Sushmita Sen. A few years after its release, Bachchan admitted that doing the film was ‘a mistake’.

From the homepage