Soon after mid-day broke the news that Ali Abbas Zafar will helm the reboot of Mr India (1987), there was a backlash from the makers of the original. Anil Kapoor's daughter Sonam K Ahuja even criticised the "underhanded" manner in which the remake was conceived of without the knowledge of the original film's leading man. Director Shekhar Kapur has now joined the chorus.

It is understandable that Kapur, the director of Bollywood's first sci-fi outing, is mighty displeased about the turn of events. When mid-day reached out to him, he said, "Where is the director's ownership on the material he has created? It [the reboot] is based on what I have created. Now, I am in touch with lawyers all over the world to [tackle] the issue. It's about creating a new understanding of creative authorship of the principal director of a film. [The model] is [followed] in many nations of the world, including Australia, and the US. As the director, I am the prime author of the movie. I must have rights to the future remake of the film created by me. This calls for a change in the constitutional copyright laws. This is not about Mr India anymore."