Filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra recalled his first meeting with the iconic star Amitabh Bachchan, whom he approached with nothing but a recommendation from Hrishikesh Mukherjee and a National Award-winning film as proof of his skills. He got Bachchan to agree to work with him, but pivoted to a different project because he felt that would be a better choice for him at that stage. He’d go on to work with the legendary star on Eklavya: The Royal Guard.
In a chat at the Kellogg Management School, the filmmaker said that in their first meeting, his biggest ambition was to use the toilet in Bachchan’s trailer. “Making a film with him wasn’t as important as peeing in his personal washroom,” he said with a laugh. “I went to meet him in a bus. At that time, the word around town was that Amitabh Bachchan has a toilet in his vanity van. I was very rude in that first meeting, I told him, ‘My name might not be very impressive, but my film is, can you see it?’ He saw that anger, and he agreed.”
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Chopra told him that he could watch the film, Murder at Monkey Hill, any time before 5 pm, because that was till when they’d leased the theatre. He added, “Now, Amitabh, Hrishi da and Rekha are all busy working, and I notice there’s some argument happening. Around 4, I started to feel that he wouldn’t get the time to watch my film. A little while later, I left. I was sitting outside, and I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was Amitabh Bachchan. He asked, ‘You have the booking till 5? Let’s go’. He asked if he could bring a friend along with him, and the friend was Rekha. He was angry because of the argument earlier, and we all got into the famous trailer…”
This was when Chopra decided to live out his dream. He said, “I asked, ‘Can I use the toilet?’ My biggest ambition in life was to pee in Amitabh Bachchan’s trailer. Who knows if the film works out or not, but at least I got to pee in his trailer.” Bachchan eventually watched Chopra’s movie, and said that they should work together. But when he got a contract from the government that came with Rs 5000 and a chauffeured car, he decided to delay the Bachchan project. “I told him, ‘Amit, we’ll have to delay our project because I have something better’.”
Bachchan was confused. He asked, “Kaka?” Chopra had no idea what he’s talking about, but discovered that Bachchan had assumed that he’d signed Rajesh Khanna for a project. “I said, ‘No Kaka, DD has told me I can do anything’. He said, ‘But you can do anything with me’.” They eventually worked together on Eklavya, which was selected as India’s official entry for the Oscars. Chopra famously gifted Bachchan a Rolls-Royce car for ‘tolerating’ his temper tantrums during the making of that film.
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