Daily Times

MUMBAI: When Aankhen came first in 2002, it blew our minds away thanks to the that thrilling plot of three blind men taking on a schizophreniac mastermind of a robbery. The original film had Amitabh Bachchan being the villain, along with a post-resurgence Akshay Kumar, Arjun Rampal, Paresh Rawal playing the blind men, with Sushmita Sen being the female lead.

For long, there had been rumours about the sequel to the film, since the film ended on a cliffhanger. After years of contemplation, the film has finally been green lighted. Amitabh Bachchan and Arjun Rampal is returning, while Akshay Kumar (because, in Amitabh Bachchan’s own words, he is busy making ‘Crack’) and Paresh Rawal (as he died in the first film, and this is no Raaz) will not.

Instead Aankhen 2 will have new players in the form of Anil Kapoor and Arshad Warsi (too many A’s in a film starting with A). Interestingly, Arshad Warsi was not the first choice in the film. As per a report in DNA, Nawazuddin Siddiqui was the first choice for the role and the Raman Raghav 2.0 actor had even liked the character. But on the day of the launch he was nowhere around and it’s said to be the same role that Arshad Warsi has stepped into.

Gaurang Doshi, the producer of the film, has however denied anything of that sort had happened.

Earlier the film ran into controversies, when Ileana D’Cruz‘s name was announced as part of the cast and she denied it, even threatening to take legal action against the producer.