Amitabh Bachchan was scared to film the iconic temple scene in Deewar, stayed inside his makeup room for 15 hours

Amitabh Bachchan has revealed that he was scared to do the iconic temple scene in his 1975 film Deewar, and stayed inside his room for hours because of it before finally walking to the set. Amitabh was speaking about artists’ block on the quiz show Kaun Banega Crorepati 14, when he recalled the shooting of Deewar. (Also read: KBC: Amitabh Bachchan says ‘hum Bhopal ke jamai raja hain’)

Deewar was directed by Yash Chopra and told the story of two brothers who fight their poverty in polar opposite directions. While one of them becomes an anti-social element, the other one grows up to become a police officer. The film also featured Shashi Kapoor, Neetu Singh, Parveen Babi and Nirupa Roy in important roles. Shashi and Amitabh played the brothers

When contestant Vikram Khurana shared how he often faces the writers’ block, Amitabh said that people often change their surroundings to overcome the block and even artists and actors face such blocks. “Many times when there is a scene which is quite difficult and you think it’s difficult you cannot do it immediately you require some time to crack it. Now that we are talking about personal life, (let me tell you that) in my film Deewar there was a scene where my character Vijay goes to the temple for the first time and prays for his mother. It was a very difficult scene for me and in the morning I did all my makeup and was ready early in the morning with my look. (Director) Yash Chopra ji came on the set and he said the ‘Chalo bhai (let us go brother), shot is ready’. Believe me, I was unable to move out from my room,” the actor said.

“We had begun at 7am and I sat in my room and till 10pm. I did not leave, speculating how to to go about the scene. This was a character who did not believe in God and had to pray for his mother’s life so what should I say and enact in front of the camera. But let me tell you I would like to salute the writer who wrote the script and his first line was ‘Aaj khush toh bahut hongey tum’ what a line hain ki nahi (You must be very happy today, what a line isn’t it?)”

Upon request from the contestant’s mother who was also present on the show, Amitabh mouthed the famous lines as the audience gave him a thunderous applause.