20 Years of Maqbool: Kamal Haasan was the original choice for Irrfan Khan’s role; Vishal Bhardwaj had to forgo his Rs. 30 lakhs fees so that he could shoot in Bhopal

By Fenil Seta -

February 7, 2024 - 3:30 PM IST

Maqbool (2004) recently completed 20 years, on January 30. The film made director Vishal Bhardwaj a popular name and it also boosted the career of its lead actor Irrfan Khan. It was an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth and also starred Tabu, Pankaj Kapur, Om Puri and Naseeruddin Shah. In a recent interview with Mayank Shekhar of Mid-Day, Vishal Bhardwaj opened up about the struggles he faced in making the thriller as per his vision.

20 Years of Maqbool: Kamal Haasan was the original choice for Irrfan Khan’s role; Vishal Bhardwaj had to forgo his Rs. 30 lakhs fees so that he could shoot in Bhopal

The maverick filmmaker began by revealing that Kamal Haasan was the original choice for the title role. In an interview with Mumbai Mirror in August 2014, Tabu stated that Kay Kay Menon was also considered briefly before Irrfan Khan was locked.

In the Mid-Day interview, Vishal Bhardwaj then said that he knocked on several doors to get the funds. With no luck, he applied for a scheme that was launched then by IDBI Bank to finance films. Producers Manmohan Shetty and Bobby Bedi were on its script consultation committee. As luck would have it, the film failed to be lucky even here.

Vishal Bhardwaj, at this point, exulted that Manmohan Shetty, over drinks, told him, “You have actors like Naseer, Om Puri, Pankaj Kapur… How would you ever have recovered a Rs 2.86 crores loan? I did you a favour, by rejecting it.”

Fortunately, Bobby Bedi was impressed with the script and he decided to finance the project. The initial plan was to shoot 25 days in Mumbai followed by 25 days in Bhopal. But once the Mumbai leg was over, Bobby confessed that there was no money for the Madhya Pradesh capital schedule. He suggested Vishal to shoot scenes of Abba ji’s (Pankaj Kapur) of haveli in a mansion at the Films’ Division office in South Mumbai. But Vishal had already finalized a haveli in Bhopal and he felt that it was the apt location. The ‘Films’ Division haveli’ wouldn’t have done justice.

Hence, Vishal Bhardwaj declined Bobby Bedi’s offer. Vishal narrated, “He (Bobby Bedi) said he won’t make the film then. I said, 'Let’s not make the movie'!”

This happened on a Friday evening. After this discussion, Vishal Bhardwaj said that he went home, “made himself a few stiff drinks” and switched off the phone over the weekend. On Monday, Bobby Bedi knocked on his door, asking where he had disappeared.

Vishal Bhardwaj said, “I told him, ‘What’s the point of meeting?’ My fees for the film, including music composition, direction and script was Rs 30 lakhs. Bobby suggested that the Bhopal shoot would cost Rs 60 lakhs. And that he was willing to put in Rs. 30 lakhs, and I could put in my Rs 30 lakhs.”

Vishal continued, “I just said—if you had told me earlier, I wouldn’t have drunk so much on Friday! Even to this day, while I was the producer, I didn’t make a single penny from Maqbool. But how does it matter? Look at all that I earned!”