7 star-studded films that never released, despite the hype

Shoebite: Director Shoojit Sircar’s ‘Shoebite’ has been stalled for close to a decade with the filmmaker and his lead star, Amitabh Bachchan, appealing to the producers to release the film. Bachchan also took his appeal to Twitter last year, retweeting a user’s appeal that read: “PLEASE ... PLEASE .... PLEASE @utvfilms, @Disney, Star or Warner’s .. whoever .. Please release this film ..Its been made with extreme labour of love. It was made and given to you years ago. We want must will watch #Shoebite [sic].” Bachchan added his own appeal to the tweet, but to no avail. It is unclear why the film, that takes Bachchan on a journey of self-discovery, hasn’t been released but in an interview with Hindustan Times, Sircar said earlier: “I feel it’s an insult and disregard to creative people. You can’t disrespect an artiste like Mr Bachchan, who worked for two years on the film. Nothing has happened till now.”

Dus: Back in 1997, the trailers of an action caper had fans all excited, with Salman Khan, Sanjay Dutt, Raveena Tandon and Shilpa Shetty starring in the lead. ‘Dus’, which was almost 80 per cent filmed, never saw light of day after the director of the film Mukul Anand died of a heart attack. It was said that Khan and Dutt also attempted to get the film released, which featured Tandon in a negative role and marked the debut of supermodel Rahul Dev, but even they couldn’t bring the film to the theatres. Ultimately, a music video of ‘Suno Gaur Se Duniyawalon‘, featuring scenes from the film, and starring the actors and music composers Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, released and went on to become a chart-topping hit.

Time Machine: Not long after he made 'Mr India', director Shekhar Kapur launched yet another ambitious sci-fi project along the lines of Hollywood’s ‘Back to the Future’. ‘Time Machine’ had also reportedly roped in an all-star cast that included Aamir Khan, Raveena Tandon, Naseerudin Shah and Rekha. According to reports, due to financial restrictions the film was shelved halfway through. In 2008, Kapur also reportedly attempted to revive the project but it never materialised.

Tara Rum Pum Pum: Another Shekhar Kapur project that stalled was this Preity Zinta starrer, which was incidentally, also supposed to be her debut film in the 90s. However, the project never took off. Zinta also confirmed the same on Twitter in 2015, writing: “I signed Tara Rum Pum Pum with Shekhar kapur but it don’t happen so Kya kehna was the first film I signed.”

The Fantastic Four: Long before the comic book got the axe, Marvel’s first family superheroes were set to take flight in an unreleased 1994 project. The origin story was to see Reed Richards, Susan and Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm’s The Thing take on the might of Doctor Doom. According to urban legend the film was made but never officially released and shelved in some deep dark corner. Although, rumour has it that illegal copies of the movie finally made it into circulation years later.

Dark Blood: The much-touted final film of River Phoenix was nearly 80 per cent complete when the 23-year-old died of a drug overdose. Over the years, several attempts have been made to give ‘Dark Blood’ a widespread release with director George Sluizer had held onto the footage for close to 14 years. The Phoenix family, including actor Joaquin Phoenix, refused to be associated with the project and with Sluizer’s narration, the movie reached completion to release on the festival circuit in 2012. A DVD release followed in 2018 in Germany, but no widespread theatrical take followed.

The Day the Clown Cried: A film directed by and starring legendary Hollywood comedian Jerry Lewis is definitely the call of all hours, but ‘The Day the Clown Cried’ is one of those notorious legends that refuses to die or release this production from its grip. The film reportedly follows a clown who is sent to a concentration camp to lead children to their deaths. Lewis, who died in 2017, gave his copy of the film to the US Library of Congress. The library confirmed it would be shown to scholars and members of the public - but not before June 2024. Why, you ask? Because the 1972 film reportedly never gained the proper rights to the original screenplay.