IMAGE: Amrish Puri and Anil Kapoor in Virasat.
One of the main reasons for Thevar Magan‘s brilliance is the towering confrontational scenes between Kamal Haasan and his real-life mentor Sivaji Ganesan.
In Virasat, the remake of Thevar Magan, Anil Kapoor and Amrish Puri reprised the father and son roles.
IMAGE: Tabu and Anil Kapoor in Virasat.
Interestingly, Kamal Haasan, who wrote the original story and idolised Dilip Kumar, wanted to remake Thevar Magan in Hindi with Dilipsaab and himself as father and son.
Dilipsaab declined the offer.
Kamal thought Dilipsaab was not comfortable with the Tamil-Brahmin ambience of the original, so for the remake, he offered to turn the father-son characters to Pathans and cast Shah Rukh Khan as Dilipsaab‘s son.
But the thespian still declined.
He then revealed the reason for his reluctance to do the Thevar Magan remake.
He found the theme too violent.
Dilip Kumar had sworn never to do violent films after witnessing communal savagery in his hometown, Peshawar, as a child.
While one respects Dilip Kumar’s sentiments, imagine what the remake of Thevar Magan would have been with him and Shah Rukh Khan, whom Dilipsaab treated as as son.
In fact, he once said that if he had a son, he would have been like Shah Rukh.
