Abhishek Bachchan recently recalled an amusing and behind-the-scenes anecdote from the making of Guru, the 2007 film directed by Mani Ratnam. During a session at the G5A Cinema House’s Mani Ratnam retrospective, Abhishek shared a memorable moment involving his wife, Aishwarya Rai, and the unexpected creativity required to make a fat suit for him.
In the film, Abhishek played Gurukant Desai, a character whose appearance changes over the course of the story. At one point, the director, Mani Ratnam, surprised everyone with a sudden decision. He called Abhishek and instructed him to rehearse a song, Ek Lo Ek Muft, with choreographer Brinda Gopal. “I remember we were all staying in a guest house, and Mani came up to me and said, ‘Let’s rehearse with Brinda.’ I said, ‘But we’re shooting the younger version of Gurukant Desai today, not the song,’” recalled Bachchan.
It was at that moment that Abhishek realized that Ratnam had caught him off guard, as he was not informed about the sudden addition of the song. Abhishek said that the song’s rough cut, a click track composed by A. R. Rahman and sung by Bappi Lahiri, had just arrived that morning. The rough version was only a tempo guide for the shoot, and the actual music was not yet ready.
What followed next was something straight out of a behind-the-scenes documentary: “He had given me two months to gain weight for the role,” said Abhishek, explaining that his character’s transformation required him to appear physically different in the later portions of the film. However, the timeline for shooting didn’t quite match up with the weight-gaining plan. “That night, I still remember, Ameira (costume designer Ameira Punvani) and Aishwarya made a fat suit for me by stitching kambals (blankets) together. Then they took some shady gray stuff and put it on my hair," he added.
Abhishek also shared that, to complete the look, Mani Ratnam insisted on him shaving his head. "He (Mani) was like, ‘Shave your head.’ I said, ‘But we are still shooting the younger portions.’ Amid all this, I was performing to a click track," Abhishek laughed, highlighting the chaotic but creative process that went into pulling off the sequence.
Abhishek humorously recalled how the situation became even more surreal when it was time to film Aishwarya Rai’s dance sequence. By the time Aishwarya started dancing, AR Rahman had sent over the finalized version of the song. Abhishek, standing there in his hastily put-together fat suit, was left thinking, “What is happening?!”
But the challenges didn’t end there. The shoot itself was grueling, especially with the oppressive summer heat in India. “It was summer, and we were shooting in stone caves,” said Abhishek. The conditions were so extreme that the rubber soles of the dancers' shoes could be seen melting onto the stones. “In that song, you can actually see the rubber from some of the dancers’ shoes melting onto the stones,” he said, recalling the intense and somewhat absurd conditions under which the scene was shot.
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