When Abhishek Bachchan got an Ahmedabad restaurant to serve his favourite meal during Navratri holidays

Abhishek Bachchan conducted an Instagram Live as he promoted his film, The Big Bull. He mentioned an episode from some years back when he forced a restaurant owner on a Navratri break to open it for him to enjoy his favorite thali.

Actor Abhishek Bachchan is busy promoting his new film, The Big Bull. In an Instagram Live from Lucknow, he spoke of his love of Gujarati food and narrated a funny incident about the extent to which he once went for his favourite thali. The film released on Disney+ Hotstar on Thursday.

Abhishek Bachchan plays the lead in The Big Bull.

The Big Bull features Abhishek Bachchan as a stock broker, a character based on scam-tainted Harshad Mehta. Directed by Kookie Gulati, the film has been compared to Hansal Mehta's web series, Scam 1992. There had been some debate on social media about how only Gujaratis could do justice to Harshad Mehta's story.

In the live, he spoke of his fondness of Ahmedabad and narrated an episode when, on one occasion, he forced the owner of his favourite restaurant, Gordhan Thal, to open the eatery especially for him. Here's how the episode had unfolded.

Abhishek and his team where in Ahmedabad for a match of his kabbadi team, Jaipur Pink Panthers. After the match, he was hungry and wanted to dine at Gordhan Thal. But it was Navratri and all markets were shut. The owner was away for celebrations, playing dandiya. On Abhishek's insistence, he returned to open the restaurant for the actor, who then had a meal all by himself.

"He was so sweet, he left everything and went and opened the restaurant for me. Then, I had a thali all by myself. I loved it."

Days before the release, Abhishek had replied to a Twitter user who had commented how no one could live up to the standard set by Scam 1992. She had written: “No wonder why one can never match the bar set by team #Scam1992 .. no unwanted rap song, only theme music.. no unnecessary drama, to the point writing.. and most important is the flavour ‘Gujarati ke upar kahani banane wala, act karnewala, direct karnewala ... Sab Gujarati’ (The ones who brought to life the story of a Gujarati - the actor and director - are Gujarati too).”

Replying to her, Abhishek had written: “Hey, just came across this tweet. I’ve acted in #TheBigBull does it count if I love Gujarati food and my favourite restaurant is @gordhan_thal in Amdavad? Plus my manager is also Gujarati..... please say yes."

Abhishek also revealed that he was in Lucknow shooting for his upcoming film, Dasvi and would stay put for another two weeks. He was to return to Mumbai and begin shooting for the next season of Breathe.