Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s 2007 film Eklavya: The Royal Guard, starring Saif Ali Khan, Sanjay Dutt, Amitabh Bachchan and Vidya Balan, was not a box office hit but was critically acclaimed and was also India’s official entry to the Oscars that year. In a recent conversation, the filmmaker recalled anecdotes from the film and how he refused to book a room for Amitabh Bachchan for Rs 65,000 because the budget was too tight.
Chopra recalled in an old interview, “The crisis was that I could have booked the room for Amitabh, but then I couldn’t leave out the other stars, Saif Ali Khan and Sanjay Dutt. I would have had to book rooms for them too and so the films became too expensive. Then I couldn’t have made a film as nuanced as Eklavya. In that case, you could make a bad film that works everywhere.” He also stated that “art money is a very dangerous thing” as it limits creative abilities.
Chopra also admitted that he rewarded Big B when he made money later in his career. The filmmaker shared that he gifted him a Rolls Royce Phantom worth Rs 4 crore while he was driving a Maruti van at the time.
He narrated how his mother reacted to his extravagant gift to Amitabh Bachchan, “I will never forget that incident. I took my mother with me when I gifted the car to Amitabh. She handed over the keys to him. She came back and 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 drove. She said to me, ‘Tu Lamboo nu gadi dede? (You gave him the car?)’ I said, ‘Haan.’ She replied, ‘Tu khud kyun nahi leta gadi? (Why don’t you buy a car yourself?)’ I told her I would buy a car, there was time. She replied, ’11 lakh ki toh hogi (It must be worth Rs 11 lakh)’. And I laughed because she didn’t know it was Rs 4 crore. I told her the cost and she slapped me and called me ‘bewakoof’. I will never forget that because what is money if it cannot give you happiness.”
Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s last directorial effort, 12th Fail, for which he also wrote the screenplay and produced, was highly acclaimed by audiences and critics. The film also turned out to be a surprise hit, grossing over Rs 69 crore worldwide against a budget of Rs 20 crore.
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