R Balki recently opened up about the time when Amitabh Bachchan shouted at him during the first day of Cheeni Kum (2007) shoot. It was during a scene where Bachchan’s character had to shout at some other characters and Balki wanted it to play out without much display of emotion. Bachchan essays the role of an ego-centric restaurant owner in the romantic drama, also starring Tabu.
During a session at MIT world peace university, Balki spoke about the scene where Bachchan’s character fires all the chefs in the kitchen. He acted in the natural way and shouted at the chefs during the scene. However, Balki wanted it to be done in a different manner. “I asked him if we could do one more take. He immediately asked me, ‘but why?’ I said, ‘a little less’ (to tone down his performance and expressions). He went around and did the same thing once again. I looked at him and said, ‘little down’. He glared at me, went back, walked around and did exactly the same thing.”
When Balki asked for another take, Bachchan lost his cool. “He got so mad and shouted at me in front of everyone: ‘What do you want me to do yaar? What the hell are you? You just want me to stand there and say things with no expression, without using my hands? I said, ‘yeah.’ Then he came, without moving his hand, he fired that guy without one expression on his face. Bang on,” said Balki.
Later, Bachchan called Balki from his van and said, ‘I got the film’. “This was the very first day of shoot and I wanted to say what’s the tone of the film, which is ‘expressionless expressions of emotions.’ It’s about a man who cannot express his emotions,” added the director.
The film also starred Paresh Rawal, Swini Khara and Zohra Sehgal in pivotal roles. It received good reviews upon release and turned out to be a success at the box-office. Balki and Bachchan collaborated later on Paa (2009) and Shamitabh (2015).
