Umesh Shukla: Big B is irreplaceable

Amitabh Bachchan is flooded with wishes for his 81st birthday. Friends and colleagues are reminiscing their time spent with the megastar and recalling memorable moments with the man of the moment. Filmmaker

Umesh Shukla

who directed Big B along with Rishi Kapoor in his film

102 Not Out

spoke to ETimes and said that working with him has been a great learning. "He is an institution," he said.

"It’s a great honour and we always pray for his health and happiness. They (Big B and Rishi Kapoor) were working together after 27 years. I always wondered how was I going to do it. We met for a workshop and it didn’t seem like they were working together after 27 years. They were on the same page immediately. It seemed like they were always working together."
"So, I told them that the characters in the film are from a Gujarati family and we don’t wear footwear inside the house. We walk barefoot in the house," he continued. "I told them that in all the wider shots, don’t wear footwear so that it looks authentic. Bachchan saab immediately agreed to it and removed his shoes. I told him that he could wear his shoes in the close shot because the shoes wouldn’t be visible. But he said, 'No, my walk would be different if I was wearing shoes.' If the character is not supposed to wear shoes or slippers in the house, then I won’t wear them in close and mid shots too," Umesh recalled.
He said that age is just a number for Big B and that he gets into a character so fast that everyone on the set gets surprised. "So, when he said that he won’t wear shoes or slippers we made sure that there was nothing on the floor that would cause him an injury. Chintu ji also agreed and did the entire film shoot without footwear. This was a huge thing because in old age, some people get fussy. I always say that Amitabh Bachchan is an ageless person."
Umesh also shared one quality of the megastar that the younger lot of actors should imbibe. "He believes in the script, the director and the story," he said. "Once he agrees to do a film, he completely surrenders. That’s a great quality. Sure, there are discussions about a shot or a scene but he listens to you. He is a director’s actor but he also makes a director’s job easy. His understanding of cinema, script, camera is so right he knows how to give suggestions so that the other person understands what he’s trying to say. He will never superimpose that things have to be done in a particular way."

Umesh added that Big B always does his homework before coming to the shoot. "I’m sure many actors would be doing that but Bachchan saab, at the end of the day, would see the scenes which were shot during the day. Not many actors do that. A couple of times, he called me late at night. First of all, he speaks very politely and respectfully. I have told him so many times to not to call me ‘Umesh ji’. I would tell him that I am much younger to him, but he would always say, 'No, abhi aap mere director hain.' On one call he told me, 'I think I can do this scene better so if your lighting is going to be the same the next day then I’d like to do it again'," he shared.

Umesh pointed out that Big B carries the script with him after the shoot as well. "He marks certain things on the script and carries that script when he comes for dubbing even if it happens after six months. I have heard that actors forget their scripts in their vanity vans. Hats off to Amit ji’s dedication. I hope that he stays healthy and keeps doing good work. We recently shot an ad film for a builder and did a few short films on social awareness. I have never seen a dip in his passion."
Umesh also believes Big B is irreplaceable. "There are not many actors in that age group who are available to work. But it is his passion for cinema that makes us want to work with him. He still has the hunger to do new and different things which I haven’t seen in other actors. Amit ji wants his script in Hindi. So, he sits with the AD team on every maatra and nukta in dialogue. If you work with him for a couple of days, you get oxygen to work for a couple of months," he signed off.