'Deadly' Bachchan!

Is that the Boogeyman, we asked almost instantaneously when we got a dekko of Amitabh Bachchan's *avatar *in Ravi Chopra's next production, Bhoothnath. Long nails, ruffled hair, termite nibbled jacket, unkempt appearance, the actor par excellence seems to have traveled to hell and back for his look in the film.

Bachchan Sr. however is quick to give due credit to director Vivek Sharma. "The director had a vision, I simply did what was asked of me," he said. Look designer Muneesh Sappel shares, "We had several options, I'm happy with our choice and the final outcome." And while producer Chopra describes Bhooth Bachchan's look as 'rocking', make-up man Deepak Sawant informs that Amitabh used to take one and a half hours to get into the ghostly garb, and only thirty minutes to get out of it.

Apparently, the first day of shoot was quite eventful. "There were a group of people waiting outside Amit*ji*'s van for his autograph, and when he emerged in his get-up, they were stunned and actually took a step back,"
narrates director Sharma, "He then tried to scare Juhi and everyone else on the sets, too. It was fun. There were screams and lots of laughter. Amit*ji*was extremely co-operative. Not once did he complain."

The *ghostly *experience was anything but ghastly for Bachchan. "It was 'deadly', literally and figuratively speaking. I enjoyed myself," he tells us. The movie, however, isn't one from the horror genre. "The kids are going to love it as much as the parents," explains Ravi Chopra. Bachchan, in the course of the motion picture, metamorphoses into a good 'soul'. So lets toast to this ghost who is actually a *dost*!