Shikwa, Asar, Aakhri Mughal: 6 Dilip Kumar films that got shelved - Exclusive

Dilip Kumar would have turned 100 years old today. The stories of Dilip Kumar’s unreleased films are as interesting as the stories of his films that saw the light of day. Film historian Dilip Thakur reveals exclusive details to ETimes.
In the 1960s, director Ramesh Saigal made a film titled Shikwa with Dilip Kumar and Nutan in lead roles. The film got shelved after 5-7 reels of shoot.Nutan had a great opportunity to become Dilip Kumar’s heroine which didn’t materialise. Although they worked together many years later in Subhash Ghai’s Karma, the possibility that Shikwa had was altogether different.
Another Dilip Kumar film that did not see the light of the day was Kalinga, produced by Sudhakar Bokade and directed by Dilip Kumar himself. Kumar’s contemporaries Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand and Guru Dutt, ventured into direction way before him and made their own style of cinema.
On 20 April 1991, at Mumbai’s Centaur Hotel in Juhu, Kalinga was announced at a huge event with the mahurat. Music composer Naushad gave the clap at the mahurat. Kalinga had a huge star cast starring Dilip Kumar himself with Sunny Deol, Meenakshi Seshadri, Raj Babbar, Shilpa Shirodkar, and Raj Kiran. Kalinga was completed 80-85% but it never got released. An angsty Bokade had once said that he felt like burning the print of Kalinga.
K Bappaiah directed film Raasta had its mahurat at Mehboob Studio. The mahurat scene was filmed on Dilip Kumar and Anupam Kher. It had a set of a palace. Dilip Kumar used to do retakes even for the mahurat shot because he wanted the scene to turn out impressive. The film also starred Jeetendra and Hema Malini. There was a big party on the night of the mahurat day but the film didn’t progress ahead.
Kuku Kohli’s Asar had Dilip Kumar, Ajay Devgn, and Priyanka Chopra. The mahurat scene was filmed at a Goregaon farm house. The scene had Priyanka Chopra jumping into a swimming pool. The film was much talked about but it did not get made eventually.
Aakhri Mughal directed by Kamal Amrohi was announced with Dilip Kumar and Dharmendra. A big newspaper ad was published but unfortunately never got made.