Amitabh Bachchan looked at Abhishek Bachchan, asked, ‘what is this piece of sh*t?’: R Balki on his biggest ad screw-up

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“I remember this campaign for Maruti Versa, which was a huge fu**-up. Back then they were very confidential about the kind of products they were releasing. I don’t even think that the marketing guys had seen the car, or maybe one manager might have seen it in the factory. They gave us a picture of another van and said that is what the car looks like,” said Balki.

The Maruti Versa 2001. (Photo: Car and Bike)

He continued, “I cracked the campaign of two cars in one. We decided to cast Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan together for the first time, and they had not done any film or ad campaign together till that time. They loved the idea, and we got the business. The shoot is ready, the script is written, the launch is next week, everyone is prepared, and we still haven’t seen the car.”

After casting the father-son duo, the whole crew drove to Lonavala for the shoot, where they laid their eyes on the car for the very first time. Balki said, “We left for Lonavala to shoot the campaign. I still remember the bungalow. The idea was that Amitabh Bachchan is sitting on the lawn and reading the newspaper. Abhishek drives in and says, ‘Hey Dad, look at my new car.’ It was the stupidest thing we could have come up with. Rehearsals were going in, and he was there, and the car was coming in. I saw this small car coming in, with two vehicles in front of it and two behind, with this one in the centre. I was shi***ng bricks when I saw the car. This was not the car I was promised.”

Amitabh Bachchan at the launch event of Maruti Versa.

Even Big B forgot his dialogue and couldn’t help but blurt out something negative about the car. ” Abhishek struggled to get in, but he was understanding, because he knew some endorsements go like this. Now, Amitabh Bachchan had not seen the car. He has his back to it as Abhishek comes in the car and the shoot was happening. He says, ‘Pa, check out my new car.’ Amitabh turned and looked at the vehicle and said, ‘What is this piece of sh*t that you have got there?’. This is on camera. I felt I should stop the campaign,” said the director.

Balki also said that he went up to Maruti and told them that this is a completely wrong campaign, but the company refused to listen as they had scheduled a launch event the very next week. He said, “The launch was held, the car happened, people enjoyed seeing Amitabh and Abhishek in one car, and people turned up to see the new car. Nobody wanted to book the car. The ad was saying something else, and the product was saying something else. That was the time I realised how bad I could be in an ad. I should have stopped the ad.”

Even though it was a huge failure and Balki had to cheat with another car in order to shoot Amitabh in the back seat, the director says that he has chalked the whole incident up as a learning.