No way am I selling my rights of ‘Aankhen’, says producer Gaurang Doshi

Producer Gaurang Doshi, who moved to Dubai some years ago, is both exasperated and amused by a report that he may have to sell the rights of Aankhen to another producer.

“No way!” Gaurang expostulated. “No power on earth can make me part with the rights for the remake. I am sending you legal proof of the fact that the rights for Aankhen are only with me. I would like to know from where this news of buying me off is coming? Obviously from the people who are interested in doing the sequel. I want to state once and for all, that the right to do the sequel to Aankhen is mine. Only I will do the needful.”

In 2002, Vipul Shah had directed the Gaurang Doshi produced Aankhen, a screen adaptation of the hit Gujarati play All The Best featuring Amitabh Bachchan, Arjun Rampal, Akshay Kumar and Paresh Rawail as visually disabled men pulling off a bank heist. Ever since then, Doshi has been unsuccessfully trying to put together a sequel.

Two years ago, Rajtaru Studios, co-producers of Aankhen had announced a sequel to be directed by Anees Bazmi.

Anees had told me, “As you know, Aankhen 2 was to be produced by Gaurang Doshi who had produced the original Aankhen film in 2002. I knew Rajtaru Studios (co-partners Raj Rajtaru and Tarun Aggarwal) were co-producers. I kept asking Gaurang to get an NOC from Rajtaru. He insisted I shouldn’t worry. ‘If I am investing money surely I’ve got the basic rights in place,’ Gaurang told me. I went ahead with his conviction. We even had a mahurat ceremony attended by Bachchan Saab.”

It was then that Rajtaru Studios raised objection to Doshi producing Aankhen 2.

Anees told me in 2019, “Sadly, Gaurang is no longer a part of Aankhen 2. It is being co-produced jointly by Rajtaru and Eros International.”