Bollywood Blitzkrieg: Prank Jaye Par Bachchan Na Jaye 
By Subhash K. Jha, March 13, 2007 - 06:59 IST
A lot of our seemingly serious and not-so-serious stars are major pranksters in real life. In the earlier era the prize for Prankster No.1 would surely
have gone to Asha Parekh who stole poor Sunil Dutt's chappals once and hid them under the seat of a chair at a studio.
Poor Dutt Saab had to go home barefeet. If only Asha had tried her prank on M.F. Hussain. She would've met her match.
Frankly, the fun and games have gone from the sets…Unless you have Abhishek Bachchan shooting. Nothing can stop junior from creating a
hyper-ventilating hungama when the cameras are off.
I remember at the mahurat of Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna at Film City, Abhishek fooled around non-stop, pulled everyone's legs mercilessly. But
when he gave the movie's first shot with his dad and Rani, he was perfect.
So is Abhishek the biggest prankster in Bollywood? I can't say because he has several serious contenders….Akshay Kumar, for instance. I'm
talking about the Akshay I knew until a year ago before he decided to take the 'King Kumar' label seriously, Akshay would call and do unbelievable
impersonations.
I must confess I got taken in several times. Once Akshay called pretending to be this publicist seeking write-ups for a model-turned-actor. The weird
accent, the whiny unctuous voice…Akshay got it all right. I was taken in….until Akshay burst into peals of laughter. One other time he masqueraded
as this annoying insurance agent trying to hard-sell LIC premium.
The best prank I've seen played was on the set of Aankhen at Kamalistan studio. Poor producer Gaurang Doshi was the brunt of an elaborate
joke among Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar and Arjun Rampal. They all mock-chided Gaurang mercilessly for not going to see Arjun's
newly-born baby in the hospital. Poor Gaurang was almost in tears. Finally his trio of tormentors burst into laughter.
Akshay Kumar (before he became 'King Kumar') had another peculiar habit. In the middle of a normal conversation while driving to work, he would
suddenly start speaking what sounded like gibberish. Turned out, Akshay would suddenly start reading a hoarding that would catch his fancy, and
incorporate the slogans in his conversation.
Abhishek is quite a strong contender for the Prankster No.1. Often when he's shooting he answers his co-stars' phones and sends off SMS on their
behalf which they've no idea about.
Abhishek met his match when he was shooting with Priyanka Chopra. While he wasn't looking she sent off a romantic SMS to one of his co-stars.
Mercifully female.
Though I haven't seen that side of them, I've heard Ajay Devgan, Aamir Khan and Suniel Shetty are also major pranksters. Poker-faced Suniel is
known to be up to some antic or the other.
Says his co-star Sammir Dattani, "When I was shooting with him for Mukhbiir I was constantly on tenterhooks wondering when one of Anna's
famous pranks would catch me unawares. But the biggest prank that Anna played on me was that there was no prank."
Aamir's favourite prank was to spit in his costars' palms while pretending to read them. Apparently his favourite co-star Juhi Chawla felt Aamir went
too far with his joke. They stopped talking for many years and finally made up. Joke joke jiyo mere laal !
Last year for April fool’s day Aamir apparently called his close friends for a screening of Mangal Pandey. Eager movie buffs reached the
venue only to find both the movie and the star missing. Of course, Mangal Pandey turned out to be the biggest joke of them all.
Very few actors have a sense of humour about their work. So don't try joking about even their worst films….Unless she happens to be Rekha who
tells you with a chuckle she had "blink-and-miss" roles in Bhootand Krissh. Or Shilpa Shetty who laughs uproariously about how
"hideous" she looked in her earlier films…Or Smriti Irani who makes constant jokes about her 70 mm size on the 32-inch home medium.
These are rarities in an industry where the joke is always on others.
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Bollywood Blitzkrieg – Bollywood bonding??
