Anil Kapoor in a scene from Mr. India. (Courtesy: Shekhar Kapur)
Shekhar Kapur's Mr India, starring Anil Kapoor and Sridevi, was way ahead of its time. The movie, released in 1987, was written by Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar. Mr India showcased the story of Arun Verma (played by Anil Kapoor), who comes across a watch that can make a person invisible. In the later half of the cult classic, Anil Kapoor's character becomes a vigilante with the help of the device and combats Mogambo (played by Amrish Puri), whose evil intentions included conquering India. Not many would disagree that Mr India displayed an interesting concept in an era when there was no CGI, special effects, or a green screen. Now, Shekhar Kapur has revealed the problem he faced in executing such a concept back then.
It all began when a user shared a clip of Mr India playing on television. In this particular scene, Arun Kumar is seen using the invisible watch multiple times. The user shared the scene on Twitter and tagged Shekhar Kapur and Anil Kapoor. Quote-tweeting the post, Shekhar Kapur explained the challenges he and his team faced while shooting the scene. He wrote, “This was perhaps the toughest scene to shoot in Mr India. We did not then have Green Screen technology which is so common now. This was shot by masking part of the lens of the camera, then rolling back the film negative precisely and masking a different part of the lens. Five times."
Now, take a look at this throwback picture shared by Shekhar Kapur. The monochrome frame, which was from a Mr India event, features the director with Sridevi, Anil Kapoor, Boney Kapoor and Satish Kaushik. Along with the priceless memory, the director wrote, "The silver jubilee celebrations.. throwback pic of Mr India".
Mr India also featured Satish Kaushik who played the role of Calendar. Annu Kapoor and Sharat Saxena were also part of the film. Mr India was produced by Anil Kapoor's brother Boney Kapoor.