Powerhouse of acting: Anthony Hopkins-2

Ramesh Kumar

Do you know who was Richard Attenborough's maiden choice to  play Mahatma Gandhi? Yes, it was Sir Anthony Hopkins. No jokes. Seriously.

Ultimately, Ben Kinsley walked away with that epic role in 1982 and the movie bagged eight Oscar awards out of 11 nominations. Of course, Ben got the Best Actor award.

It was during the making of Magic (1978), Attenborough decided to cast Hopkins, who did the lead role in that movie, as Gandhi.  He had even gone to the extent of announcing to the world about Hopkins as Gandhi.

Soon after the release of Magic, Attenborough flew into Los Angeles for a discussion with Hopkins. The Welsh action enrolled himself in a health farm to slim down to match Gandhi's physique.

Quentin Falk quotes Hopkins telling him in Anthony Hopkins: The Biography:

"What he (Attenborough) got to, for me even to consider it, my ego. Had I done it, it would have been an act of terrible vanity and really only proving I could cosmetically change myself, lose ten stone and end up in a coffin. 

For I would have died, I know that! I looked at myself in a mirror and thought: He's crazy! I can't do Gandhi. I can't go through a year of macrobiotic junk. I enjoy my food too much and I 'm impossible to live with without it. I mean, I'd die. Attenborough was wonderful. He understood...."

Uff. it was his obsession with food that robbed him of that epic role. Does not matter. What he lost, ultimately landed in the lap of Ben Kinsley, another British actor. Not an American!

The best comment came Hopkin's father when he  heard about his son's casting  as Gandhi. "It is going to be a comedy. Is it then?"

In hindsight, Attenborough conceded: You won't cast Tony in a million years as Gandhi!"

Misjudgment... Miscasting... It's all part of life.