Filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra recently talked about his initial encounter with the legendary actor Amitabh Bachchan. Chopra had reached out to Bachchan post a recommendation from Hrishikesh Mukherjee and his success with a National Award-winning film. While Bachchan was keen to collaborate, Chopra moved to another project, but later partnered with Bachchan on the film ‘Eklavya: The Royal Guard’.
During a discussion at the Kellogg Management School, Chopra recalled that during his first meeting with Bachchan, he wanted to use the restroom in the actor’s vanity van. “Making a film with him wasn’t as important as peeing in his personal washroom,” he joked, adding, “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.”
Chopra explained that the filmmaker finally had the opportunity to view his film, ‘Murder at Monkey Hill,’ before 5 pm as that was when their theater booking expired. He noted, “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,” Chopra added.
At that moment, the filmmaker decided to fulfill his quirky dreams, and recounted, “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.” After watching Chopra’s film, Bachchan expressed interest in working together. However, when Chopra received an offer from the government that included Rs 5000 and a chauffeured car, he decided to postpone the project with Bachchan. He explained to Bachchan, ‘Amit, we’ll need to put our project on hold because I’ve received a better opportunity. I told him, ‘Amit, we’ll have to delay our project because I have something better’.”
Bachchan and Chopra collaborated eventually on ‘Eklavya,’ and the film was picked as India’s official submission for the Oscars.
