Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who will soon turn 82, has shared an interesting anecdote around his film Sharaabi. The Uunchai actor made the revelation during the latest episode of his quiz-based reality show Kaun Banega Crorepati 16, as he welcomed contestant Dinesh Kumar, from Aligarh to the hot seat. As the game unfolded, Amitabh Bachchan asked a question related to the 1984 classic Sharaabi, which led to a fascinating behind-the-scenes story.
The veteran actor said, “We were travelling to the West Indies from New York, with Kalyanji-Anandji’s orchestra, and Prakash Mehra was with us. During the flight, Prakash Ji brought up the idea for Sharaabi. He outlined the entire story while we were in mid-air and asked for my thoughts. I simply said, ‘Okay, let’s think about it’. When we returned, he had already written the script. However, the dialogues were incredibly long—some spanning 2-3 pages”.
This ignited the curiosity of Dinesh with regards to the shooting of the film. As he asked more questions, Big B, in his signature style, said, “Nahi, nahi, suniye toh. Abhi kahani khatam nahi hui (hold on, the story is not yet finished)”.
He then recollected telling director Prakash Mehra, “You made me an alcoholic for the whole movie, and it takes time for an alcoholic to speak. If I were to deliver these 4-page dialogues, the film would span multiple hours. Please shorten them.” Prakash agreed, and the dialogues were condensed.
Earlier, on the show, Big B revealed as to how his mother’s influence turned him into ‘Angry young man’. The veteran actor narrated a story from his childhood when he was beaten up by his friends. A crying Amitabh Bachchan, an unfathomable sight perhaps, went home, and told his mother Teji Bachchan that his friends had beaten him up.
Looking at the sight of her poor boy, Teji Bachchan, who was a social activist, told him to go back and beat those guys up in return thereby empowering the young Big B to not let anyone take him for granted. Big B said that he went back and beat the pulp out of those guys.
Kaun Banega Crorepati season 16 airs from Monday to Friday on Sony Entertainment Television.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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