Not Nirupa Roy, this star was first choice to play Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor's mother in Yash Chopra film Deewaar

Directed by the legendary filmmaker Yash Chopra, Deewaar was released in cinemas on January 21, 1975. The crime drama, featuring Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor, Nirupa Roy, Neetu Singh, and Parveen Babi in the leading roles, completes 50 years of its release today. Deewaar is still regarded as a cult classic in Indian cinema.

Deewaar revolves around how two brothers Ravi Verma and Vijay Verma struggle to survive in the Mumbai slums and eventually grow up to find themselves on the opposite sides of the law. While Ravi becomes a police officer, Vijay becomes an underworld gangster. Shashi Kapoor played Ravi, Amitabh Bachchan played Vijay, and Nirupa Roy played their mother Sumitra Verma.

It is interesting to note that the veteran actress Roy wasn't the first choice to play Sumitra in the 1975 film. This interesting piece of information was revealed by the legendary screenwriter duo Salim-Javed, who wrote Deewaar, in their docuseries Angry Young Men, which premiered on Amazon Prime Video last year. 

To promote the three-part series, Salim Khan and his eldest son Salman Khan, Javed Akhtar and his children Farhan Akhtar and Zoya Akhtar, and director Namrata Rao sat down for a fun interaction with the choreographer and filmmaker Farah Khan for a fun video titled Icons In Conversation for the Prime Video YouTube India channel.

In the clip, Farah played a Salim-Javed quiz with Salman, Farhan, Zoya, and Namrata, and asked some interesting questions related to the works of the screenwriter duo to their children and the series director. One of the questions that Farah asked was, "Which actress was originally approached for the role of Nirupa Roy in Deewaar?", Zoya guessed, "Waheeda Rehman", which was not the correct answer. Since no one could answer, Salim Khan revealed, "It was Vyjanthimala." Javed Akhtar added, "Let me tell you something. We contacted two people for this, one by one. First Vyjanthimala, and then Suchitra Sen."

Even after 50 years, Deewaar remains one of the influential films ever made in India. Its dialogues such as 'Mere Paas Maa Hai' and 'Main Aaj Bhi Phenke Hue Paise Nahi Uthaata' are still a part of pop-culture. The Yash Chopra film cemented Amitabh Bachchan's popular image of the 'Angry Young Man' in Bollywood.