When Kamal Haasan upset Manmohan Desai as he asked him for script, didn’t offer him tea: ‘Even Amitabh Bachchan doesn’t…’ 

However, Kamal was approached for many projects from the North. “They were kind and still are. Some were good ones. Manmohan Desai saab was very upset when I insisted on seeing a script. I think it was for a film called Allah Rakha. I could only apologise because I didn’t mean any insult, no disrespect. Then he said even Mr Amitabh Bachchan doesn’t ask for a script. My answer was that ‘He can afford to not ask for it’.”

He added, “Some of the people who came along with him on that day are still my friends; we still joke about the meeting. I was so excited about him coming that I didn’t even offer him tea. ‘So this guy first didn’t offer me tea and then he asks for a script’. So many things went against me. I must have missed a lot of opportunities.”

Recently, in an interview, filmmaker Vishal Bharadwaj also revealed why a project that was supposed to star Kamal Haasan didn’t work out as the actor wanted to make the film in both Hindi and Tamil. “We interacted, but our conflict was the way we were seeing the film. He wanted the film to be bilingual, in Hindi and Tamil, which would have other star cast, it would be filmed simultaneously. I thought I was falling in the trap of business here, and back then I used to be very stubborn. I wanted my film to be made my way. Whenever (Kamal) meets me these days, he jokes, ‘When am I getting my call sheet?'” Vishal had revealed in Unfiltered by Samdish.

Kamal Haasan is currently riding on the success of Vikram (2022), which earned more than Rs 400 crore at the box office. The actor will return to the big screen with the long-delayed film Indian 2. He is currently working on an untitled project with H Vinoth and another with Mani Ratnam.