Vipul Amrutlal Shah recalled how he got Amitabh Bachchan on board for his 2002 heist thriller, Aankhen.
When we speak about heist films made in Bollywood, Vipul Amrutlal Shah’s 2002 multistarrer, Aankhen definitely comes to our mind. Starring Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Arjun Rampal, Paresh Rawal and Sushmita Sen, the film based Shah’s own Gujarati stage play, Andhalo Pato, was a major commercial success upon its release.
Recently, Vipul Amrutlal Shah in an interview, shared an interesting backstory about how he convinced Big B in just 10 minutes to give his nod to Aankhen. The filmmaker said that he was a bundle of nerves when he was waiting outside Amitabh Bachchan‘s van to meet him for his film.
Having met the megastar only once briefly a year before, Shah was unsure if Sr. Bachchan would even remember him. The filmmaker shared, “I was waiting outside Amitabh sir’s van, and I was thinking how I would be introducing myself to him, how would I talk to him. Afterwards, Amitabh sir came, gave his shot and asked me upon spotting, ‘Vipul tum yaha kya kar rahe ho?’. I couldn’t believe that he remembered me after a year of meeting me for just a few minutes.”
Shah was surprised when Bachchan agreed to listen to his script during a 45-minute break between his shoots, allotting Shah just 10-15 minutes to make his pitch.
The ‘Namastey London’ director said, “I thought there must be a lengthy process involving his managers and all, but he just agreed to listen to the script like that. I was a bit scared internally since I was asking Amitabh Bachchan to play the role of a villain, so maybe I upset him.”
He said that while giving the superstar a narration for Aankhen, he was struck by his intense, yet non-reactive listening style.
“He listened to my script. He has a very naturally intimidating demeanor, where he has no reaction to scripts that are being narrated and he just listens, very carefully. As the narrator, you don’t really understand how he feels about the script. Anyway, after completing my narration of the script in 15 minutes, Amitabh sir said, ‘Vipul, I’ll do this.’ I couldn’t believe that he said that, so I was in disbelief,” the filmmaker recalled.
Amitabh then asked Shah to present him the full script in three days. However, Shah and his team were not fully prepared. The director explained the entire situation to his writer Aatish Kapadia and asked him to pack their bags for Khandala as they had to finish writing the entire script in 48 hours and then narrate it to Bachchan in 72 years.
Vipul recalled, “He (Aatish) had no hopes of achieving the task in that timeframe, but I emphasized that we have to do this no matter what. It couldn’t be changed, and we can’t appear as liars to Amitabh sir.”
After working non-stop for 48 hours on the script, they met Amitabh Bachchan for the narration.
Shah shared, “Our narration ended at 5 AM, and after discussing it in detail, Amitabh sir said, ‘You can announce that I’m doing this film.’ So that was like the biggest moment of my life, me and Aatish came out and danced on the street and celebrated, and that’s how Aankhen started.”
Aankhen turned out to be an important film in Vipul Amrutlal Shah’s career. Meanwhile, the filmmaker’s next is Hisaab starring Jaideep Ahlawat and Shefali Shah in leading roles.
