On Day 2 of Kala Ghoda Arts Festival 2026, R Balki had an interesting chat with celebrity anchor Gaurav Sharma, aka SharmaG, about his debut film Cheeni Kum (2007) at the ‘Food! Camera! Action!’ session in a bar in South Mumbai. The screening of the Amitabh Bachchan-Tabu starrer took place after the conversation. R Balki brought the house down as he spoke about the drama that happened on the first day of the shoot.
The very first scene of the film was the one shot on the first day of the shoot. R Balki said, “The camera rolled and he delivered the dialogue. I told him, ‘Amit ji, can we do one more’. He asked, ‘Why?’. I gestured to him to lower the aggression and that it was loud. He looked at me and asked, ‘Loud?’. He then gave another take, but did it exactly the same way! I again did the same gesture. He did the take, yet again in the same way. He then said, ‘Let’s move on to the next shot’. I again gestured to him. He was angry and gave the same shot all over again, for the fourth time! Realizing I was not satisfied, he screamed, ‘What do you want me to do? Do you want me to blank and say my dialogues?’. I replied, ‘Yes’! He gave me a hard stare.”
R Balki added, “He did the shot as per my requirement, without any expression. After I said ‘Cut’, he walked out of the set. I thought he was going home! His dressman came and said, ‘Amit ji wants to talk to you’. I went out, expecting that he would say that this is not how a film was made. But he said, ‘I get the film now’.”
He remarked, “If I had succumbed and said, ‘Great, Amit ji’, he would have got a very different feel of the film. He just wanted to know the sur that I wanted. He picks up on it and gives it to you. From that point onwards, I had to never explain to him. He used to tell Tabu, ‘No expression. Just stand and deliver what he has written. That’s the film’!”
R Balki also opened up about his experience of working with Zohra Sehgal, “Zohra ji was so beautiful. Amit ji came on the set and warmly greeted her. Everyone became silent in front of Mr Bachchan but he became silent in front of Zohra ji! During their first take together, when Amit ji started speaking his dialogue, she said, ‘Amit, wrong, wrong, wrong. You missed out on word’. She had mugged her own lines and also his! I told Zohra ji, ‘You please come on the sets everyday. Then, he’ll do his work properly (laughs)’.”
He revealed, “At the end of the shoot, she said, ‘You can’t end the day with chai’. She made us come to her room, where we all had whiskey! She told us, ‘I have one drink everyday’. Until the age of 95, she had one peg daily (smiles).”
More Pages: Cheeni Kum Box Office Collection , Cheeni Kum Movie Review
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