Bhubaneswar: This film has had a great impact on the greatest showman of India – Raj Kapoor. Raj Kapoor saw the original Telugu film titled Swathi Muthyam. This film became a Telugu cult classic.
He was so impressed by the film that the legendary showman of Indian cinema,wanted to produce the film after seeing its South Indian version. He wanted to take Kamal Haasan in the lead role. Kamal told Raj Kapoor not to worry about his price. Unfortunately, Kamal Hassan quoted a high price for the story. Raj Kapoor decided to back off. A month later Raj Kapoor approached Kamal Hassan again. By then Kamal had sold the remake rights to someone else.
Director of the film K Vishwanath and Mallikarjun Rao had signed Anil Kapoor for the film later.
They narrated 3 scripts to him and he did not like any.
Anil had seen the original film Swathi Muthiam and wanted to do the film. But he felt it would go against his star image and he was too young for the role.
Meanwhile Anil had invited Raj Kapoor over for a housewarming party . Anil knew that Raj Kapoor wanted Kamal Hasaan for the role.
But at the party Raj Kapoor told Anil he would he perfect for the film. This confused Anil as he knew Kamal Hassan was about to do the film in Hindi with Raj Kapoor.
Finally the deal with Raj Kapoor fell thru and Anil approached K Vishwanath about the film. Anil promised to do the film for half his market price. Boney Kapoor also saw the film and encouraged Anil to do the film in Hindi.
WHEN ANIL KAPOOR COMPELLED TO TURN VEGETARIAN
As the script of the film requires the male lead character to be a spotless, innocent and naïve persona, Anil Kapoor did the following to sink into the image of the character.
Moreover, Anil said, director Vishwanath ji felt that there was a tiredness in the eyes of all the residents of Bombay. Some sort of corruption is reflected in the eyes of people living in Maharashtra. Eeshwar was very childlike character who was selfless in his love. To get the kind of Innocence I have to exercise his self-discipline on myself".
As per Anil Kapoor, "For the film, I had given up everything non-veg, including flirting with girls for 15 days before the filming started and of course right throughout the shooting.”
The film was Eeshwar released today. Feb 24, 1989.
The film was written and directed by K. Vishwanath. The film stars Anil Kapoor, Vijayshanti. It is the Hindi version of Viswanath's Telugu cult classic. The film received the Filmfare Award for Best Story.
ANIL KAPOOR’S CONDITION
The director was keen to cast Jayaprada as the heroine but Anil refused to act with her, to settle an old score. Jayaprada had refused to star opposite him in Shekar Kapur's Joshilay because he was not a big star then.
KAMAL HASAN’ S REACTION
Kamal Hassan later stated that a certain soul and magic was missing from the film. It was not due to Kamal not being in the film, but the director being creatively bored for making the same film all over again.
