Hale and hearty Amitabh Bachchan returns to sets

Refuting the buzz that his health is the reason for projects like Kaun Banega Crorepati being delayed, Amitabh Bachchan returned to face the camera for a campaign for Kalyan Jewellers.

Refuting the buzz that his health is the reason for projects like Kaun Banega Crorepati being delayed, Amitabh Bachchan returned to face the camera for a campaign for Kalyan Jewellers.

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At Film City, the actor played favourite teacher to four ex-students, Nagarjuna, Shivaraj Kumar, Prabhu and Dilip, superstars of Telugu, Kannada, Tamil and Malayalam cinema.

“Apart from Nagarjuna, who’d acted with him in Khuda Gawah (1992), the others were interacting with him for the first time, though he’d been close to Prabhu’s grandfather Sivaji Ganesan, Shivaraj Kumar’s father, Dr Raj Kumar, and Nagarjuna’s father Nageshwara Rao Akkinen, all legendary actors,” says the ad film’s writer-director, Srikumar.

Did Bachchan insist on curtailed working hours in the wake of his recent illness? “No, we shot over four days and he was there before time and finished before everyone else because he’s a one-take artiste,” says Srikumar. “He was healthy and jovial, even cracking jokes.”