Kamal Haasan 'begged' Dilip Kumar to work with him in Thevar Magan Hindi remake Virasat: 'He had decided not to act'

Kamal Haasan has said he had begged Dilip Kumar to star alongside him in the Hindi remake of Thevar Magan. The remake, titled Virasat, starred Anil Kapoor and Amrish Puri.

Kamal Haasan recently revealed that he regrets not getting a chance to work with late actor Dilip Kumar. Kamal said that he had even begged the veteran actor to work with him on the Hindi remake of his Tamil film Thevar Magan (1992), but the latter had retired from acting and didn’t agree to it. The film’s Hindi remake, titled Virasat, released in 1997 and starred Anil Kapoor and Amrish Puri.

Kamal Haasan has said he wanted to work with Dilip Kumar.

Kamal, who has previously also spoken about his admiration for Dilip Kumar, said that he had held the actor’s hand requesting him to work with him on the film. He added that he misses the actor, who died in July last year.

Kamal told Indian Express, “I love acting with actors. There’s one actor whom I miss and I really wanted to work with, he was Dilip Kumar. I really held Dilip saab’s hand and begged him but he had decided not to act. I wanted to make Thevar Magan with him and me, but it didn’t happen so I gave it to another friend and he made it with Anil Kapoor saab and Amrish Puri saab.”

Kamal Haasan starred alongside Sivaji Ganesan, Revathi, Gautami, and Nassar in Thevar Magan, which was directed by Bharathan. Virasat, directed by Priyadarshan, featured Tabu, Pooja Batra, Milind Gunaji, and Govind Namdeo apart from Anil and Amrish. The story was written by Kamal. Virasat emerged as one of the highest-grossing Bollywood films of 1997 and had received 16 nominations at the 43rd Filmfare Awards.