After the recent disclosure that Shah Rukh Khan is playing an autistic Muslim character in New York for Karan Johar's 'My Name Is Khan', comes the news that Anil Kapoor is also doing an autistic act for Subhash Ghai's 'Yuvvraaj'.

This is not for the first time that Anil Kapoor is playing an autistic character. Two decades back, in K Vishwanath's 'Eeshwar' Anil played the role of a 'slow' saintly man, who wins over a village widow.

For bringing out the simplicity in the character that time, Anil admitted he had copied Raj Kapoor. Sources close to the actor say, for 'Yuvvraaj', Anil's reference point is Tom Hanks in 'Forrest Gump'.

A source revealed: "Anil plays elder brother to Salman and Zayed Khan. Subhash Ghai had been meaning to incorporate a physically-psychologically challenged character into his script for a long time. It was Anil who told Subhashji the story idea for Yuvvraaj."

Apart from the present news of two versatile actors of the Hindi film industry turning autistic for their roles, there have been instances in the past too, where actors have undertaken the autistic route to prove their mettle - Sanjeev Kumar in Anhonee and Khilona, Jeetendra in Jyoti, and Amol Palekar in Solva Sawan.

In fact, Hrithik Roshan did the autistic act with National award winning elan in 'Koi Mil Gaya'.