Big B leaves Sonu Sood numb on sets

Mumbai, April 3 (IANS) There was near crisis on the sets of Puri Jagannath's "Bbuddah" when Sonu Sood, who was shooting with megastar Amitabh Bachchan for the first time, was told to get rough with the legend for the scene. A nervous Sonu declined.

Nervous and anxious to begin with, Sood simply froze at the thought of acting belligerent with the Big B, and that too, on the second day of his shooting with him.

"Sonu simply went cold. Every actor who faces the camera with Mr. Bachchan for the first time, goes through some amount of nervousness. But when Sonu was told that he had to rough up Mr. Bachchan he was panic-stricken," said a witness.

He tried to convince the director to postpone the sequence, arguing that he would not be able to handle the aggression against someone so senior and legendary. But Puri wouldn't listen.

The final straw was the moment when Sonu was supposed to push the Big B to the ground. Sonu simply refused to do the needful.

Sonu had to say some very rude things to Mr. Bachchan on camera. He managed somehow cringing and apologising after every shot. But when he was told to physically push Mr. Bachchan, Sonu staged a walkout. "Sorry Sir, yeh mujhse nahin hoga (Sorry, I can't do this)," he said.

Apparently, the Big B kept persuading Sonu to go ahead and give his best shot.

"'Come on, push me, do it!', Mr. Bachchan said trying to galvanise the nervous young actor into action," said the witness. But Sonu wouldn't budge. His hands and feet had frozen. He just couldn't get aggressive with an actor he reveres.

Sonu did't deny there was a problem. "It's true I just froze when I was told I had to get aggressive with Bachchan saab and even push him down."

"This was a man I have hero-worshipped from childhood. I waited 10 years to share screen space with him. Now when it was finally happening, I was told I had to be extremely rude and violent with him in our very first scene together."

"I wanted to lose my inhibitions and get comfortable with the 'God' of acting. But I was told I had to go through it…It was doubly painful since I share a very special bonding with the Bachchans. I starred with Abhishek and Aishwarya in their most special films 'Yuva' and 'Jodhaa-Akbar', respectively. Now it's Bachchan saab. I didn't want to start on that rude note."

The young actor even refused to take orders from the director who, apparently, cancelled Sonu's leave from the sets Wednesday to be in Punjab's Mohali for the India-Pakistan cricket World Cup match.

Whether this was linked to Sonu's refusal to act tough with the Big B on camera, is not confirmed. Click the Movie button below for more info:
Buddha