When Amitabh Bachchan Refused Shooting The Most Iconic Scene Of Indian Cinema! ( Photo Credit – Instagram; Wikimedia )
Amitabh Bachchan is one of the greatest actors Indian Cinema has ever witnessed. He started his career with Saat Hindustani but rose to prominence as the Angry Young Man with Prakash Mehra’s Zanjeer. After Zanjeer, Yash Chopra signed the superstar for Deewaar!
Written by Salim-Javed, the film also starred Nirupa Roy, and Shashi Kapoor as well. In fact, it had some of the most iconic dialogues of the Indian Cinema, right from ‘Mere Paas Maa Hai’ to ‘Mera Baap Chor Hai’ and ‘Aaj Khush To Bahut Hoge Tum.’
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Aaj Khush To Bahut Hoge Tum….Hayynnn!
Deewaar had one of the most iconic scenes of the Indian Cinema as well – Amitabh Bachchan, an atheist fighting and having a conversation with ‘Bhagwaan’ in a Mandir, begging for his mother’s life. The scene started with the dialogue – Aaj Khush To Bahut Hoge Tum!
Amitabh Bachchan, as per Hindustan Times, once revealed how scared he was to shoot the temple scene. The actor recalled, “In my film Deewaar, there was a scene where my character Vijay goes to the temple for the first time and prays for his mother. It was a very difficult scene for me, and in the morning, I did all my makeup and was ready early in the morning with my look. (Director) Yash Chopra ji came on the set, and he said, ‘Chalo bhai, the shot is ready.’ Believe me, I was unable to move out of my room.”
He further narrated, “We had begun at 7 am, and I sat in my room till 10 pm. I did not leave, speculating how to go about the scene. This was a character who did not believe in God and had to pray for his mother’s life, so what should I say and enact in front of the camera? But let me tell you, I would like to salute the writer who wrote the script, and his first line was ‘Aaj khush toh bahut hongey tum’. What a line!”
Amitabh Bachchan rehearsed the entire scene from 7 am to 10 pm in front of the mirror and refused to shoot before he was confident that the lines by Salim-Javed would sound convincing coming out of Vijay’s character. Finally, the scene was shot after a long rehearsal and self-doubt session, and it turned into one of the most iconic scenes in Indian cinema.
