After Karan Johar decided to remake the Amitabh Bachchan starrer Agneepath, the director has gone and replaced his original choice Hrithik Roshan who was to play Big B for AB Junior instead!
Abhishek Bachchan will now play the iconic Vijay Dinanath Chauhan played by Amitabh Bachchan for which the latter even won a National Award. The film was a cult classic and Agneepath was most defining role in the nineties of Big B's angry young man image. Abhishek who had always been vocal about his dream of portraying the character of Chauhan had his prayers answered when Karan offered him the role.Hrithik was a tad apprehensive in stepping into Big B's shoes and later cited date issues for not doing the film. When StarBoxOffice approached Raahul Anand, the brother of the late Mukul Anand, the director of the film, Anand said, "Agneepath is fresh in the minds of the people even today. The film is more like an encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema and my brother Mukul had carried immense research before the making of the film."
Raahul however felt that tampering with an original not always has had its good moments, "We've seen the fate of Sholay and with due respects to Karan Johar, according to me remaking a classic is not that a good idea. I remember once Vinod Khanna had said films such as Amar, Akbar Anthony shouldn't be touched, they're originals and have a distinct identity of their own." he explained.
When quizzed who he would like to see as Vijay Dinanath Chauhan, Hrithik or Abhishek, Raahul was quick to answer, " Other than Amitabh Bachchan himself, no body in this film industry can play the character as well as him." The feeling is mutual, we say!
