Ad filmmaker Prahlad Kakkar recalls shooting with Amitabh Bachchan, calls it 'the most traumatic' experience

Ad guru Prahlad Kakkar has recalled his memories of working with Amitabh Bachchan while speaking to Cyrus Broacha. Kakkar explained why it was a traumatic experience for him and his team to work with the legend.

He said, “Our most traumatic moments were with Mr Bachchan. He has a habit of coming five minutes early, with full makeup. No film unit in the world turns up five minutes early, or even on time.”

The filmmaker added, “Just imagine, there’s this studio, there’s a single light. And in that pooling light, Mr Bachchan is sitting on a chair, in full makeup, reading a newspaper, waiting for us to arrive. Nobody has turned except the boys, and he’s told them, ‘Ek light denge? Main akhbaar padhta hoon’. And they put the light on him, and he was sitting on a chair, reading the newspaper nonchalantly. He never said a word; didn’t need to. We s**t. And the next time we were shooting with him, nobody slept.”

On Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan

According to a media report, SRK was short of Rs 6 lakh, the amount he agreed to work on for the advertisement. However, ad filmmaker Prahlad Kakkar shared that the team behind the advertisement finally went ahead with Aamir along with two ladies – Mahima Chaudhary and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.

The advertisement is from 1995 and is for a soft drink brand featuring a mix of synth-pop and Indian music in the background.

Talking about the ad, Prahlad told the media, “The advertisement was shot borrowing the idea from the western countries. The challenge was that if the ad didn’t do well, people would have criticised us saying we couldn’t copy it well. And if it did well, people would criticise saying it’s a copy.”

That’s the reason Prahlad was strict on choosing the cast for this ad, and told the team not to interfere with it.