Reviving old tales

Around 15 years ago, Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor were pencilled in to star in a Vishal Bharadwaj directed film called Mr Mehta and Mrs Singh, which was to be bankrolled by UTV. Aamir later opted out of the project, after which it was shelved.  

But interestingly, the actor registered the exact same title under his production house, Aamir Khan Films LLP’s banner, last week. He has registered two titles with the Indian Motion Pictures Producers Association (IMPPA) — Mr Mehta and Mrs Singh as well as Mr Mehta Mrs Singh. “Aamir Khan has registered the titles of the film both in English as well as in Hindi,” informs our source.

While Bharadwaj’s original choice of heroine was Rani Mukerji, he later chose Kareena. “The film was billed to be a romantic comedy, very unlike the genre that Vishal had been trying to do. It was also a film where both Aamir and Kareena were shown ageing, like how they are doing so in Laal Singh Chaddha.
The film was to go on the floors in 2006 in Pondicherry, but things didn’t work out and the project was shelved then. Since Aamir has now registered the title, it does seem that he is keen to bring the film back to life. We wonder if it will have Vishal as a part of it, since it was his idea,” a film industry source muses.

Incidentally, there was another film that released in 2010 called Mr Singh Mrs Mehta with Prashant Narayanan and British actress Aruna Shields. The overtly bold film directed by Pravesh Bharadwaj got a lukewarm response at the box office.