“Mogambo khush hua!”
This line from the cult classic film, Mr India (1987), is as iconic as the character. Even after all these years, Mogambo‘s character is synonymous with the late veteran actor Amrish Puri. Whenever we hear these lines, we hear it in Amrish Puri’s voice.
However, did you know that it wasn’t Amrish Puri who was the first choice to play this deadly villain? Shekhar Kapur, the director of Mr India, had initially roped in Anupam Kher to play the role of Mogambo. Yes, you are reading that right. Anupam Kher was disappointed that he was replaced from Mr India. But when he saw Amrish Puri’s phenomenal performance as Mogambo, he was simply blown away.
In an interview with IANS, Anupam Kher revealed this trivia. He said,
“In Mr. India, Mogambo’s role was offered to me before Amrish Puri. However, after one or two months, the filmmakers replaced me. When you are dropped from a film then generally an actor feels bad, but when I watched Mr. India and saw Amrishji’s work as Mogambo then, I thought that makers of the film took the right decision by casting him in their film.”
This trivia changes everything that we know about Mr India.
Released in 1987, Mr India was one of the most successful Hindi superhero films. The film starred Anil Kapoor, Sridevi, Amrish Puri, and Annu Kapoor in lead roles. Adjusted for inflation, the film grossed the equivalent of ₹1.47 billion ($19.9 million) in 2022.