Big B races against time

Dev has failed him and Deewar has collapsed in a heap but Big B continues to walk as tall as ever, says Saibal Chatterjee.

Dev has failed him and Deewar has collapsed in a heap. It has indeed been a long, bleak season of box office flops for him, but the unassailable Amitabh Bachchan, as only he can, continues to walk as tall as ever. As he does on the suburban Mumbai location of Waqt - Race Against Time. The shoot is on in the premises of a private club and public access to the spot is controlled. Yet, as you would expect, there is a sizeable crowd to watch Bachchan at work.

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Attired in a smart black suit, the actor has Shefali, who plays his wife in the film, and Boman Irani for company as he strides alongside a swimming pool, the shimmering blue waters creating bright, wavy patterns on the scene.

The shot is canned. Director Vipul Shah calls "Cut". Bachchan exchanges pleasantries with visitors before settling down on a seat atop several moulded chairs, each mounted on the other in order to create a suitably comfortable height for his lanky frame. The star sinks into deep thought in preparation for the next shot even as youngsters milling around the location make a beeline for autographs. Vipul Shah decides to take a break to let the unit hands set up the place for the further action.

Big B: Moving ahead

"It is always much more difficult to shoot at night," Shah says. "Setting up a shot takes an awful lot of time." The shift had begun at 7 in the evening but it is until well past nine before things are in readiness for the first shot.

Shah feels that half the battle is won because he has the Big B in his cast. "When we were making Aankhen, we had an understanding that he would be in my next film as well. The Waqt role suits him like a glove," he says.

Waqt - Race Against Time co-stars Akshay Kumar and Priyanka Chopra, who provides the romantic interest in the film. The plot revolves around the relationship between a man and his son whose lives change forever when they stumble upon a family secret buried in the past.