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Vidhu Vinod Chopra, who is presently promoting his latest film 12th Fail, recently recalled an incident when Amitabh Bachchan offered to give him a break but instead of working with the biggest actor of the country, he chose to make a film with Doordarshan. Vidhu shared that after his student film Murder at Monkey Hill won a National Film Award, director Hrishikesh Mukherjee, who was a part of the jury, arranged for a special screening so Amitabh could watch the movie.
“He was a huge star, he was the biggest star of all time,” Vidhu said in a video shared on the YouTube handle of Zee Studios. The filmmaker then recalled, “The moment the film got over, he got up and said, ‘So when do we work together?’ When he said that, I thought my struggle is over.” The Parinda director shared that after this incident, he started writing a film for Big B called Prashant but since he did not have any money at the time, he asked the megastar to pay him a minimal amount.
“I told him, ‘I don’t have money. So you give me some Rs 1200 or something.’ He said, ‘You are the writer, director, producer. You will pay me or I will pay you?’ I said, ‘I have nothing.’ He said he will think about it,” Vidhu Vinod Chopra recalled. While Amitabh Bachchan was yet to make a decision, Vidhu got a call from Doordarshan’s head who had also seen his National Award winning short film. “He said, ‘You do anything for us. I won’t you ask you any questions.’ For the job with Doordarshan, Vidhu was getting paid Rs 4,500. He immediately went to see Amitabh and told him that he has got a better offer and won’t be working on their collaboration.
“I told him, ‘Sir, you let that film be. I have got a better offer so I will do it after some time.’ He asked, ‘Who? Kaka?’ He thought Rajesh Khanna has hired me,” Vidhu recalled with a laugh. When Vidhu revealed that he was planning to work for Doordarshan, Amitabh was shocked and said, “You will not make a film with me, but you will make one for Doordarshan?”
When Vidhu Vinod Chopra revealed that he was doing it because they were giving him a free hand to do whatever he wanted, Amitabh Bachchan said that he would give him the same liberty. “He said, ‘Are you crazy? You can do anything with me also.’ I said, ‘No, you are Amitabh Bachchan. You will say anything now and refuse later. What will happen to me then?'” he recalled with a laugh.
He shared that the two actually worked together decades later in Vidhu’s 2007 film Eklavya. He concluded by saying that he would always be grateful to Amitabh “for that one line. He helped me get rid of my insecurity.”
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