Vidhu Vinod Chopra revealed that Amitabh Bachchan wanted to work with him after watching his diploma film. However, Vidhu took up an offer from Doordarshan instead, because of the money involved in the project. The filmmaker shared the incident in a video posted online by ZEE Studios, the production house behind his latest film 12th Fail.
Recalling the time, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, said that legendary filmmaker Hrishikesh Mukherjee organized a special screening of his student film Murder at Monkey Hill for Amitabh Bachchan after the film won a National Film Award. Soon after watching the film, Amitabh asked Vidhu to work with him. He said, “When he said that, I thought my struggle is over. He helped me get rid of my insecurity. I wrote something and I told him, ‘I don’t have money, give me ₹1200 or so.’
Murder at Monkey Hill was Vidhu’s final project during his diploma at FTII. It bagged the Best Short Experimental Film and the Guru Dutt Memorial Award for Best Student Film at the National Film Awards that year.
Amitabh thought Rajesh Khanna offered Vidhu a project and the filmmaker then told him it was a TV project. When informed that it was a Doordarshan offer, Amitabh told Vidhu, “You will not make a film with me, but you will make one for Doordarshan?” Vidhu then told the star that the channel assured him that he could do anything. “Amitabh said, ‘Are you crazy? You can do anything with me as well.
