Soumitra could have played Amitabh Bachchan’s role in this Bollywood classic!

When Hrishikesh Mukherjee was making Anand, he informed his writer Gulzar to open the film in such a way that the audience knows in the first scene itself that Anand (played by Rajesh Khanna) is dead.
He did not want the audience to be in a state of suspense till the end and keep guessing whether Anand will survive or not. By doing that Hrishikesh Mukherjee wanted to concentrate on the essence of the film on how Anand wants to live life fullest and make the best of the time he has.
There’s another interesting trivia about this cult classic. Not many people know Hrishikesh Mukherjee in his 1971 film ‘Anand’ approached Soumitra Chatterjee to play the role of the famous character of Dr. Bhaskar Banerjee but the thespian had to say no because the shooting dates clashed with his commitments to Bengali cinema.
We all know Amitabh Bachchan played the doctor’s character in the Rajesh Khanna starrer ‘Anand’ which turned out to be his first major hit.
Not only 'Anand', but Soumitra had also turned down two more offers from Mumbai - Shyam Benegal’s 1981 film ‘Kalyug’ which is a modern-day take on Mahabharata and Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury’s 2016 film ‘Pink’.