‘Abhi nahi’ says KJo

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We’ve all heard about how Hrithik Roshan was initially reluctant to play the role of Vijay Deenanath Chauhan — the iconic character made famous by Amitabh Bachchan — in Karan Johar’s remake of Agneepath. But what may come as a surprise to many movie buffs is that another actor harboured the hope of being cast in that same role — Abhishek Bachchan.
In fact, if one recalls the episode where AB Junior appeared with his wife Aishwarya on the third season of Karan’s chat show, his rapid response to one of the questions KJo threw at him (“who would you dress up as if you were invited to a masquerade ball”) had been a prompt, “Vijay Deenanath Chauhan”. Abhi had gone on to say that he would have loved to reprise his father’s famous role and give Hrithik a tip or two in bringing the character alive.
So what went wrong? Why wasn’t Abhi featured in the remake, even though he had the desire and certainly, the antecedents? KJo shrugs it off with a tactful, “I am a slave of my director (in this case, Karan Malhotra). When he adapted Agneepath, he had already envisioned it with a certain set of actors, and got them on board. It was his vision, and I chose to agree with his vision.”
Poor Abhi, it seems he should have masqueraded as Vijay Deenanath Chauhan after all. Perhaps that would have changed Karan Malhotra’s vision.