Amitabh Bachchan poses with the Rolls Royce gifted by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. (Express Archive)
Filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra is often known to be a hard taskmaster, and instances of his clashes with actors are widely talked about. His infamous fight with Parinda actor Nana Patekar is well-documented. However, Nana wasn’t the only one, Chopra also had major disagreements with superstar Amitabh Bachchan while shooting his 2007 film Eklavya: The Royal Guard. Despite their clash, the two eventually ended the project on a positive note, with Chopra even gifting a luxurious vehicle to Big B.
‘Chopra shouts and screams, won’t suit your temperament’: Jaya Bachchan
In an old interaction, Chopra recalled how he was surprised to see Amitabh Bachchan arrive on the Eklavya set with very little luggage. Curious, he asked the actor about it, to which Big B replied, “Jaya told me that I wouldn’t be able to stand you for more than a week.”
Jaya Bachchan’s warning soon proved accurate, as Chopra admitted that tensions escalated between them during the shoot. “We actually started fighting after a week or 10 days. But he stayed on, and completed the film,” Chopra told Siddharth Kannan, acknowledging Bachchan’s professionalism.
Amitabh Bachchan, speaking to PTI, once revealed how Jaya Bachchan cautioned him against working with Chopra, warning him about the filmmaker’s temperament. “When I told Jaya I was working with Vidhu Vinod Chopra, she nodded silently, which is an indicator of things to come. When the time came for me to go for outdoor shoot, I told Jaya I am going, she asked how long I will be away, I said, a month. She said, I will see you back in three days. She told me he (Chopra) abuses, shouts and screams this is not going to suit your temperament, and that I will be back in three days.”
Chopra refused to book a Rs 65,000 room for Amitabh Bachchan
Chopra also recalled refusing to book a Rs 65,000-per-night hotel room for Amitabh Bachchan due to the film’s budget constraints. He explained that he didn’t want to show preferential treatment to one actor over others. “The crisis there was that I could have booked the room for Amitabh, but then I couldn’t leave other stars Saif (Ali Khan) and Sanjay (Dutt) out. I would have to book rooms for them too, and that’s how films go over budget. Then I couldn’t have made the nuanced film like Eklavya. In that case, you could make a bad film that works everywhere.”
He further added, “Money in arts is a very dangerous thing”, explaining how excess spending can limit creative freedom.
Chopra got slapped for gifting Rs 4.5 crore car to Big B
Despite sticking strictly to the budget during production, Chopra later rewarded Amitabh Bachchan for enduring his demanding nature by gifting him a Rolls Royce worth Rs 4.5 crore. At the time, Chopra himself continued to drive a humble blue Maruti van. This decision reportedly earned him a slap—from his own mother.
Recalling the incident, Chopra said, “I will never forget this incident. I took my mother with me when I was gifting the car to Amitabh. She handed him the keys. She came back, sat in my car, which was a blue Maruti van. She called Big B ‘Lamboo.’ I didn’t have a driver at the time, so I was driving. She told me, ‘Tu Lamboo nu gadi dedi? (You gave the car to him?)’ I said, ‘Haan.’ She replied, ‘Tu khud kyun nahi leta gadi? (Why don’t you buy a car yourself?)’ I told her I will buy a car, there is time. She responded, saying, ‘11 lakh ki toh hogi (It must be worth Rs 11 lakh).’ And I laughed because she didn’t know that it was Rs 4 crore. I told her the cost, and she slapped me, calling me ‘bewakoof.’ I will never forget that because what is money if it can’t give you joy.”
In another interaction, Chopra explained the reason behind gifting Bachchan the expensive car, saying, “I gifted him a car worth Rs 4.5 crore because he tolerated me. It was really humbling for a star of his stature to have to tolerate me, it was big of him.”
Curated by Shiv Shakti Mishra
