On Sunday, around noon, Amitabh Bachchan went cycling on the streets of Kolkata. The ride on the two-wheeler wasn’t part of the plan. Shoojit Sircar, who after shooting 30 per cent of his upcoming film, Piku, in Mumbai, had moved to the City of Joy, simply wanted Big B to stroll through the lanes.
Instead, the actor spotted a bicycle on location and on an impulse decided to ride it. Says a source present on the sets, “Mr Bachchan had to cycle sedately on camera. But as soon as Shoojit da called ‘Cut’ he started jangling the bell merrily and pedalled around. He was like a kid let loose in a candy store.”
Over 1,500 starry-eyed Kolkatans watched him from the sidelines, thrilled to have their ‘jamai babu’ back in the city. In 1962, the actor had taken a job as an executive with a shipping firm, Bird and Co, in the city. He quit the job, that paid him Rs 500 a month, to become an actor.
He made his debut in Saat Hindustani in 1969. In 1973, Zanjeer opened and then there was no looking back.
Bachchan is shooting in the city after eight years. He was there in 2006 for Rituparno Ghosh’s The Last Lear. But that film was mostly shot indoors. This time he will be filming mostly outdoors. “Yesterday, they shot near the Nonapukur tram depot. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has assured the unit complete cooperation and over 100 cops were deployed to ensure that there were no security issues despite the large crowds,” adds the source. The Kolkata schedule will continue till the third week of November.
