Aankhen director Vipul Amrutlal Shah recalls when he was given 10 minutes with Amitabh Bachchan to convince him for his role

Amitabh Bachchan’s performance in 'Aankhen' became one of Bollywood's most iconic roles, heralding the start of a successful partnership with Vipul Amrutlal Shah.

While excitement builds for Vipul Amrutlal Shah's upcoming heist film, 'Hisaab,' it's worth revisiting a lesser-known story from his past. Vipul Amrutlal Shah, the mastermind behind many Bollywood hits, shares a behind-the-scenes tale about how 'Aankhen' came to be. It all started with a serendipitous encounter and a legendary actor.

Shah stood outside Amitabh Bachchan's van, a cocktail of nerves and excitement bubbling within him as he looked forward to meeting the legendary actor. Though they had crossed paths briefly a year ago, Shah wasn’t sure if the superstar would recall their previous encounter. Reflecting on the moment, Shah 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."

To Shah’s astonishment, Amitabh Bachchan agreed to hear his script during a 45-minute break between shoots, giving Shah a brief window of 10-15 minutes to present his pitch. "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."

Bachchan’s interest didn’t stop with the initial pitch; he asked Shah to submit the complete script within three days. Unfortunately, Shah and his team were not fully ready for this tight deadline. "I told Aatish [writer] and explained the entire situation to him, and asked him to pack our bags because we had to go to Khandala, having to write the whole script in 48 hours and narrate it to Amitabh sir in 72 hours. He 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," Shah recalled.

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In an impressive display of determination and creativity, Shah and his writer, Aatish, worked around the clock in Khandala."We went to Khandala, worked on the script non-stop for 48 hours, wrote it, read it, edited it, made changes and continued to do so the entire time leading up to our meeting with Amitabh sir. 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."

And the rest, as they say, is history. Amitabh Bachchan’s performance in 'Aankhen' became one of Bollywood's most iconic roles, heralding the start of a successful partnership with Vipul Amrutlal Shah. Looking ahead, Vipul Amrutlal Shah is gearing up for his next project, Hisaab. The film will feature Jaideep Ahlawat and Shefali Shah.