Jeetendra, Jackie Shroff almost replaced Amitabh Bachchan in this film, it was once shelved, director got poor, then...

In 1984, Amitabh Bachchan took a break from acting to join politics. Meanwhile, three of his movies - Geraftaar, Mard, and Aakhree Raasta - had released in 1985 and 1986, which he had completed earlier. The 1998 action film Shahenshah marked his Bollywood comeback after he had resigned as a Member of Parliament from the Allahabad constituency in 1987, which he had won after a thumping victory in the 1984 Lok Sabha elections.

In an interview last year, the Shahenshah director Tinnu Anand had shared that the film went through multiple struggles at different stages of production. The film was almost shelved, then Jeetendra and Jackie Shroff were considered to replace Bachchan, before Big B finally came back and completed the project. Shahenshah, eventually, turned out to be a blockbuster at the box office. 

A few days before Shahenshah was set to go into production, Amitabh Bachchan got admitted in a Bangalore hospital. Recalling how that incident impacted his film, Tinnu Anand told Radio Nasha, "I was told by the Manmohan Desai unit that he has gotten injured and was taken to Bengaluru for checkup. 'He has asked you to come to Bengaluru,' they told me, so I went there. This time, I was on tenterhooks: Is he going to be well for my schedule? I kept waiting at the hotel, where he arrived and said, ‘Please sit down, I have a bad news for you. I have been diagnosed with a nerve illness. During the shoot when I was taking a sip of the water, it got stuck in my throat, because the message to my brain didn’t go that I had to swallow it.’ He then said, ‘I nearly died suffocating on it.'" After this incident, Amitabh was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, a rare autoimmune disorder that causes significant muscle weakness.

Tinnu Anand, who has also acted in several hit movies such as Agneepath, Dabangg, Salaar, Ghajini, and Chamatkar among others, added how Jackie Shroff and Jeetendra were considered to replace Big B in the film. He added, "We had to make Shahenshah, and it took us a year. Jackie was the first to agree. He enjoyed the attention he was receiving about possibly replacing Amitabh Bachchan in Shahenshah. He signed three or four more films because of that buzz. Jeetendra, on the other hand, said, 'I don’t think I can fit into Amitabh’s shoes'". Tinnu shared that he realised that no one would be able to replace Amitabh and the project was shelved.

Around the same time, runours began that Amitabh would soon retire from acting. "The announcement came on Monday or Sunday, that Amitabh Bachchan will not work in films anymore. And I had spent a lot of money for an outdoor schedule. I had creditors coming to my house now. I experienced one year of poverty. But slowly, slowly, Amitabh came back. His brother told me, 'Tinnu, don’t worry, I know about your condition. But if da (brother) comes back, he’ll finish his unfinished two films, and after that, if he's still in a condition to work, yours is the first film we’ll take’. So, there was some ray of hope given by Bunty, his brother."

Finally, after an year, Shahenshah hit the theatres on February 12, 1988. Also starring Meenakshi Sheshadri, Pran, Amrish Puri, Prem Chopra and Sharat Saxena in supporting roles, the action drama went on to achieve a cult status in Hindi cinema. The dialogue "Rishte Mein To Hum Tumhare Baap Hote Hain, Naam Hai Shahenshah" still finds its mention in the pop culture.

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