During the period 1985 to 1992, I had various occasions to meet Big B Amitabh Bachchan, during shooting of his films or during events. At some muhurat scenes, he was even called as chief guest, to give the clap and he used to oblige all his well wishers and friends. I still remember, when he was once called at a Juhu bungalow, to give muhurat clap of a Govinda film. The time given for the muhurat was 9.30 am and Mr. Bachchan walked in exactly at 9.25 am. But, he had to wait for next half an hour for Govinda to arrive, which was an embarrassment to the makers of the film. But, the Bollywood superstar preferred to wait.
Amitabh Bachchan, clicked during muhurat sshot of his film ‘Khuda Gavah’ 25 years ago.
Earlier, I had heard about his punctuality of Mr. Bachchan, through Film maker Govind Saraiya’s son, who used to shoot ad films. Those days, he used to shoot ad films on social awareness. And, the one he was shooting with Mr. Bachchan was about importance of Blood donation. Mr. Bachchan had not only agreed to do this film, without any honorarium; but made it a point to reach for the shoot at scheduled time 8.30 am in the morning. His punctuality was also observed during the music release of his film ‘Shahenshah’ , when he had pushed his director friend Tinu Anand into the swimming pool , after his timely arrival, to surprise the director. By the way, few scenes of this film were shot at Seth Studio, Andheri( east), when the actor made it a point to report for his shoot.
There was one more occasions, when I saw him arriving for muhurat of his film ‘Khuda Gavah’ held early in the morning, perhaps at Filmistan Studio. Knowing that he would reach in time, I reached the venue before time. And, the actor did keep his commitment. For the muhurat shot, he even uttered his famous dialogue from the film, in the get up of a Pathaan.
Many years after that when I wrote my own book ‘Fitness & Beyond’, I sent a copy of this book to him, as there was a paragraph written about his straight back and walking style. And, to my surprise, within few days time, I received a reply from him, complimenting me for the book and wishing me all the best. It gave an impression that he had read all 188 pages of the book. This was also one way of displaying his promptness.