Directed by Ram Gopal Varma, the 2005 political crime thriller Sarkar featured Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan in the leading roles of Subhash Nagre aka Sarkar and Shankar Nagre. The film quickly became a cult classic and spawned two sequels, Sarkar Raj in 2008 and Sarkar 3 in 2017. In a recent interview, Varma revealed an astonishing detail: Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan were not the first choices for Sarkar, a movie inspired by the 1972 Hollywood epic The Godfather.
Varma shared that he initially intended to create a film titled Nayak in 1993 with Naseeruddin Shah and Sanjay Dutt. However, after Dutt’s arrest following the 1993 Bombay blasts case, the project was shelved, paving the way for what would eventually become Sarkar featuring the Bachchans. In his conversation with Pinkvilla, Varma stated, “Yes, Sanjay was supposed to play Abhishek’s role, and Naseeruddin Shah was meant to play Amitabh’s role. Since Nayak didn’t happen, Sarkar was made. If I had made Nayak, regardless of its performance, I would have never made Sarkar.” He continued, “Eventually, Nayak was shelved, and the title was dropped. It was a lovely title, but the project never materialised.”
Varma reminisced about the time when Sanjay Dutt was imprisoned and how he used that waiting period wisely. “While waiting for him to be released, I made the action comedy Anaganaga Oka Roju (1996) in Telugu, which became a super hit. Since that film was successful, when Sanjay Dutt came out, we decided to make an action comedy instead of a political film,” he added. This led to the creation of Daud (1997), which, unfortunately, did not succeed at the box office.
Amitabh Bachchan’s daughter-in-law and Abhishek Bachchan’s wife, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, later played a pivotal role in the sequel, Sarkar Raj, which was commercially successful, similar to the first offering. However, Sarkar 3, the third installment in the political thriller franchise, did not perform well at the box office.
