But all that is history now.
The role which went to Big B and King Khan finally fell into his lap and the movie went on to bag tremendous international acclaim.
After all the Golden Globes and other big award functions, the next stop for the film is the Oscars. Anil Kapoor is elated but unlike in the past, now he's become more knowledgeable of international cinema too. He says he's aware of the competition around.
He's said, "You come to a country like America, you go to Los Angeles, and there are only Indian actors in the film.
It's an Indian story, it's almost like an Indian film and Americans vote for you, specially in awards like the Screen Actors Guild Awards and then they give you this award. And whom are you competing with?
You are competing with Sean Penn's film, 'Milk', you are competing with Brad Pitt's film, 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'.
Then there's Doubt and also Ron Howard's film. You see small, small clips of all these performers and they are great performers."
Well, must say it's good to see B-Town favourite actor think big and open up his mind so about international cinema.