Anil Kapoor Celebrates 20 Years Of Nayak; 'I Knew I Had To Do This Film & Believed In Its Message'

Anil Kapoor's political thriller Nayak co-starring Amrish Puri and Rani Mukerji clocks 20 years today (September 7, 2021). Upon its release back then, the film wasn't a commercial success at the box office but over the years, its has achieved cult status owing to its take on corruption and a pro-active Chief Minister.

As Nayak completes 20 years today, Anil took to his Instagram page to pen a heartfelt post that read, "20 years ago I was the Reel life CM for a day and the rest is history! A lot of people had their views about me doing #Nayak but I knew I had to do this film & believed in its message! And now here we are celebrating #20yearsofNayak!!"

Have a look at the post.

Nayak marked Shankar's directorial debut in Bollywood. The film was a remake of his own Tamil film Mudhalvan which starred Arjun Sarja and Manisha Koirala in leading roles.

Interestingly, Anil Kapoor was not even the first choice for this movie. The actor had to pursue Shankar to cast after Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan turned down Nayak. Similarly, Rani Mukerji came on board after things didn't work out with Manisha Koirala, Karisma Kapoor, Raveena Tandon, Preity Zinta and Tabu.

One of the iconic scenes in Nayak has a mud-smeared Anil Kapoor fighting goons at a car junkyard. Interestingly, the actor was initially suppose to go shirtless in this scene. However he was uncomfortable with the idea and even refused to shave off his body hair for the shot. That's when Shankar decided to cover him in mud.

Nayak revolves around a common man who accepts a challenge by the Chief Minister of Maharashtra to run the state for one day and makes such a success of it, only to get embroiled in political intrigue.