Angry Amitabh Bachchan stormed off Cheeni Kum set, shouted at R Balki: ‘What the hell do you want me to do?’

R Balki recalled the time when he had a fight with Amitabh Bachchan on the first day of Cheeni Kum shoot.

New Delhi | August 10, 2023 02:36 PM IST

3 min read

Amitabh Bachchan played a chef in R Balki's Cheeni Kum.

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Amitabh Bachchan and director R Balki collaborated for the first time in the 2007 film Cheeni Kum where Bachchan played a chef who falls in love with a much younger Tabu. The film received a lot of love from the audience at the time and is still remembered as a unique love story in Hindi cinema and while this kicked off a series of collaborations for Balki and Bachchan, it wasn’t a smooth ride from the start. In a recent interview, Balki recalled how Amitabh Bachchan “lost it” in front of the whole set on the first day of the film’s shoot.

For R Balki, this was his debut film and he was directing a legend of Indian cinema on his very first day. Balki said that this was the only time that he and Bachchan ever fought. He shared with Instant Bollywood, “The only time we’ve ever fought was on the first day of our film. When we were doing Cheeni Kum, he came on set and he did the first shot in the kitchen. You don’t know how to tell Amitabh Bachchan one more (take). And I said (gestures one more), and he said ‘what?’ I said ‘little lower’ (with gestures). He asked ‘what do you mean by this?’ (repeating the gesture).”

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Anyway, Bachchan went and did another take, but Balki was still not happy so he repeated the same gesture again. Then it happened a third time and the same cycle repeated itself. Balki recalled, “He lost it. In front of the whole set, first day of my shoot as a director. (He yelled) ‘What do you want me to do? What the hell do you want me to do? You don’t want me to do anything else. You want me to just stand there and… I said yeah. He went there and without any expression, he stormed off. And he called me to the van. He said (calmly) ‘I get it’. I said ‘good, let’s go’.”

Balki said that this was his first on set conversation with Amitabh Bachchan. “I thought finished, he is walking out of this film. He thinks I am sh*t,” he shared. But, of course, that did not happen. The duo have since worked together on films like Paa and Shamitabh. Bachchan also had a cameo in Balki’s films English Vinglish and Ki & Ka. He will also be seen in a special appearance in his upcoming film Ghoomer which stars Abhishek Bachchan.

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