Amitabh Bachchan looks back with Subhash K Jha at the making of Bunty Aur Babli, including the rap, the item number, and working with director Shaad Ali!
Amitabh Bachchan shot a music video for the promotion of Shaad Ali’s Bunty Aur Babli. Recalls Mr Bachchan, “It was the visuals for the rap track ‘B & B’ from Bunty Aur Babli. Very catchy, very young. The trend of putting a music-video or an item song with the opening titles or end titles began at Yashraj Films with Dhoom. I really enjoyed filming it.”
The number was choreographed by Shiamak Davar who wasn’t physically present at the shooting. “Though Shiamak was out of the country, he gave such minute instructions by proxy. We had no problem following his dance steps. I remember Shah Rukh saw it five times . I also did a Qawwalli ‘Kajra re’ with Abhishek and Aishwarya. We never imagined it would become such a rage.”
AB is no stranger to music videos. In the 1980s, when he had temporarily given up film acting, he shot a music video based on his hit song ‘Kabhi kabhi mere dil mein’ with Tamil-Telugu-Malayalam actress Shobana.
“These were minor diversions, meant to generate fun. Frankly, I think I’m too old to be doing dance numbers. That’s a perception created by the music video for Bunty Aur Babli, where they made me do a rap song. But I’m neither God nor dude. I’m Amitabh Bachchan. I was so surprised by the response to the music video. It was a fantastic gambit that paid off. It was Aditya Chopra’s brainchild. He walked in one morning and suggested I do it for the film’s promotion. It was really scary and tough. But I somehow I got through it (sighs).”
Speaking of his Bunty Aur Babli director Shaad Ali, Mr Bachchan says, “A very loving and compassionate human being. That shows in his work. His film is so different in attitude and sensibility. Look at his work and you know he has gathered his aesthetic values from his own childhood in UP. There’s a great deal of culture and aesthetics coming to him from both his parents. There was a lot of deliberate kitsch in Bunty Aur Babli, but nothing jarring. Our cinema has been busy looking at the ambitions of the metro-centric characters. How nice to go into the dreams of the small towners as colourfully and romantically! The visuals in Bunty Aur Babli were so fresh and appealing. Shaad paid a tribute to the cinema of the 1960s and 70s.”
