
June 4: As news of Muhammad Ali's death broke this morning, Amitabh Bachchan posted a tweet, uploading a photograph of himself, Ali and Prakash Mehra.
"With the 'greatest' Muhammad Ali at his home in L.A. Prakash Mehra had wished to make film with him and me," the actor wrote.
Mehra, who helped shape Bachchan's image as the "Angry Young Man" with films like Zanjeer and Muqaddar ka Sikandar, had dabbled with the idea of collaborating with Hollywood.
In the 1980s, he had started work on The God Connection, which was to star Bachchan, Charles Bronson and, in what was considered a casting coup, Ali.
Mehra even met Ali at the boxer's Beverly Hills home in Los Angeles. But the project never took off because of budget constraints.

was on a singing tour of the US and a common friend took him to see the boxer
News of the venture had been splashed in Indian film periodicals of the time. Not much was known about the script except that it was about a godman. Some film aficionados conjecture that the script may have later been reworked into Jadugar, Prakash Mehra's box office disaster starring Bachchan.
Bachchan had posted the same picture on his blog three years ago when he wrote a nostalgic tribute to the city of Los Angeles.
"With the greatest of them all - Mohammed Ali ! This at his residence in Beverly Hills, Los of Angeles ... ! Along with Prakash Mehra and my younger brother Ajitabh ... he was fun to be with, mock punched me, spoke of films and acting and singing ... perhaps my first trip ever to LA ... loved it and still do ..." Bachchan wrote on his blog on July 19, 2013.
Ali himself was the subject of several films, the most notable being Michael Mann's Ali where he was portrayed by Will Smith. In the mid-1970s, Ali had played himself in the smash hit The Greatest.
Ali did have a tryst with yet another Indian superstar.
In January 1980, Ali fought a bout with former heavyweight champ Jimmy Ellis at the Nehru Stadium in what was then Madras. In the audience was MGR, the Tamil film superstar who had three years ago become chief minister.
MGR, in spite of tripping on his dhoti, jumped onto the ring after the bout to hold hands with Ali and Ellis.