Pahlaj Nihalani Quashes Govinda's Claim Of Being Offered A Role In James Cameron's 'Avatar'

In a conversation with Friday Talkies, Pahlaj Nihalani revealed that he had shot almost 40 minutes of a Hindi film which he had titled ‘Avatar.’ However, for multiple reasons, the film was shelved. The producer claimed that Govinda must have confused this film with Cameron’s award-winning work. He said, “I had made a film called ‘Avatar’ with him. I had filmed 40 minutes of it, which I consider one of my best films, but it got canned. Woh ‘Avatar’ title se pata nahi uske dimaag mein kya aaya, baad mein claim karta raha ki main waha (Hollywood) ki ‘Avatar’ kar raha hoon. Uske dimaag ka disc ghum gaya aur language Hindi se English mein chala gaya (I don’t know what happened to him, but he started claiming that he was offered the Hollywood Avatar).”

The producer called the incident a tragedy and said, “He said he was offered that ‘Avatar’ and forgot that it was actually Pahlaj Nihalani’s ‘Avatar’. So that was the big tragedy that happened. He said let’s put this on hold, do something else.”

In the same conversation, Nihalani also recalled his ‘Avatar’ was a remake of a Rajinikanth film where Govinda would play the double role. He mentioned that the project was unfinished as the actor would ‘faint.’ He added, “We tried to make the film in one schedule but last minute I don’t know what almonds he ate with tea that he started fainting and uss din ke baad se uska dimaag theek nahi raha. He started talking nonsense and the schedule kept getting pushed.”

Govinda and Nihalani had last worked in ‘Rangeela Raja’ that was released in 2019.