After Sonam Kapoor criticised director Ali Abbas Zafar for announcing a remake of her father Anil Kapoor's 1987 sci-fi film Mr India without asking him, the film's director Shekhar Kapur expressed his concern about directors and their creative rights in a series of tweets on Saturday. He tweeted that he was not given the "creative rights" for the remake of the film and also wrote about going legal about it. The 1987 film featured Anil Kapoor and late actress Sridevi in the main roles and it is still considered as one of the cult films of that era. On February 17, Ali Abbas Zafar announced the remake of Mr India through a trilogy and left the makers and the actors of the film disappointed.
Tweeting about the creative rights of his film, Shekhar Kapur wrote: "We sit with writers from day one but are not the writer. Help actors hone performances but are not actors. Develop and create visual language of film. Slave hours over editing consoles. Directors lead and inspire every aspect of a film and have no creative rights?" and added the hashtag #MrIndia.
We sit with writers from day one, but are not the writer. Help actors hone performances but are not actors. Develop and create visual language of film. Slave hours over editing consoles. Directors lead and inspire every aspect of a film and have no creative rights? #MrIndia
— Shekhar Kapur (@shekharkapur) February 22, 2020
In a separate tweet, when director Kunal Kohli wrote: "Javed Akhtar won a hard fought battle for the rights of lyricists and writers. Its time we did the same?" Shekhar Kapur replied: "Yes. It's time to test this legally... Let's do it."
Yes. It's time to test this legally .. let's do it .. https://t.co/b0GXWYWvks
— Shekhar Kapur (@shekharkapur) February 22, 2020
Shakhar Kapur's latest tweets arrive Sonam Kapoor criticised Ali Abbas Zafar in a strongly-worded post on Instagram, in which she called his decision "disrespectful" and "underhanded." An excerpt from Sonam Kapoor's post read: "A lot of people have been asking me for the Mr India remake. Honestly, my father didn't even know that the film was being remade, we found about it through social media when Ali Abbas Zafar tweeted. It's quite disrespectful and underhanded, if it is true, since no one bothered to ask my father or Shekhar uncle - two people who made a major role in making the film what it was and what it is."
Take a look:
FYI pic.twitter.com/YRmrny8VeW
— Sonam K Ahuja (@sonamakapoor) February 22, 2020
Shekhar Kapur also clarified in one of his previous tweets that "no one asked" him about Mr India 2: "No one has even asked me or mentioned to me about this film called Mr India 2. I can only guess that they using the title to get a big weekend. For they cannot use the characters/story without permission from the original creators of the film."
No one has even asked me or mentioned to me about this film called Mr India 2. I can only guess that they using the title to get a big weekend. For they cannot use the characters/story without permission from the original creators of the film. https://t.co/Set5eDH63j
— Shekhar Kapur (@shekharkapur) February 18, 2020
Mr India also featured late actor Amrish Puri and still rules the hearts of many for its iconic dialogues like "Mogambo Khush Hua" and popular songs like Hawa Hawaii and Kate Nahin Kat Te among others.
