Jaya Bachchan warned Amitabh Bachchan he won’t be able to tolerate this director, Big B fought with the filmmaker, latter’s mother slapped him for…
Jaya Bachchan had warned Amitabh Bachchan he won’t be able to tolerate Vidhu Vinod Chopra before the 2007 film Eklavya began. Amitabh and Vidhu fought within 10 days, but the actor completed the shooting. Vidhu gifted Big B a Rolls Royce for his commitment, but his own mother slapped him.
Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan
Amitabh Bachchan and Vidhu Vinod Chopra collaborated for the 2007 action drama film Eklavya: The Royal Guard. Amitabh’s wife and actress Jaya Bachchan had warned him that he won’t be able to tolerate the filmmaker for more than one week. Bachchan and Chopra did fight on the sets of the film, but the superstar stayed on and completed the shooting. The director was so impressed by him that he gifted him a Rolls Royce worth Rs 4.5 crore, for which his mother slapped him.
Sharing about his experience of working with Amitabh, Vidhu told Siddharth Kannan in an interview, “When we were making Eklavya, Amitabh Bachchan came to the sets with one suitcase for a schedule of two months. I asked, ‘Amit, you travel very light?’ He said, ‘No, Jaya told me ‘more than one week you cannot stand Vinod’.” After 10 days, Jaya’s prediction did come true and Vidhu and Amitabh fought within 10 days. “But because he did not leave and completed the whole film, I gifted him a Rolls Royce worth Rs 4.5 crore, because he tolerated me and did a great work in the film”, Chopra shared.
The 12th Fail director further elaborated on how his mother scolded him for gifting the luxurious car to the Sholay star while he himself owned a blue Maruti van. Vidhu Vinod Chopra added, “I will never forget this incident. I took my mother with me when I was gifting the car to Amitabh. She handed him the keys. She came back, sat in my car, which was a blue Maruti van. She called Big B ‘Lamboo.’ I didn’t have a driver at the time, so I was driving. She told me, ‘Tu Lamboo nu gaadi dede? (You gave the car to him?)’ I said. ‘Haan.’ She replied, ‘Tu khud kyun nahi leta gaadi? (Why don’t you buy a car yourself?)’ I told her I would buy a car; there is time. She responded, saying, ’11 lakh ki toh hogi (It must be worth Rs 11 lakh).’’ And I laughed because she didn’t know that it was Rs 4.5 crore. I told her the cost, and she slapped me, calling me ‘bewakoof.’ I will never forget that, because what is money if it can’t give you joy.”
Apart from Amitabh Bachchan, Eklavya also starred Saif Ali Khan, Sharmila Tagore, Sanjay Dutt, Vidya Balan, Raima Sen, Jackie Shroff, Jimmy Shergill, and Boman Irani in the lead roles. The film failed at the box office, but won critical acclaim and was chosen as India’s official entry to Oscars for Best Foreign Film category, but failed to secure a nomination.
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