Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini starrer Baghban released in theatres 20 years ago and became a huge hit as it seemed to connect with a lot of Indian families. The film had Amitabh and Hema playing parents to four sons who shirk away from their responsibilities when their parents decide to live with them after the father retires. In a new interview, Samir Soni, who played one of the sons in the movie, recalled his memories of working with Amitabh and Hema and how they left him starstruck when he first met them. Samir’s character had a lot of screen time with Amitabh’s character and he said that after spending all that time with the superstar, he thinks of him like his father.
Samir recalled his first meeting with Big B and revealed what broke the ice between them. He shared with Bollywood Hungama, “I introduced myself and told him that I was playing one of the sons. He mockingly gave me a dirty look saying, ‘Hmmm…you are the one.’ I said, ‘Yes. I am sorry’ (laughs)! That broke the ice.” The actor shared that in between shots, Amitabh would share anecdotes from his films like Sholay with the cast. “I feel like he’s my father. Whenever I meet him, I touch his feet. He always invites us to the Diwali party at his residence,” he shared.
Samir added that whenever he sees Amitabh Bachchan at a party, he makes it a point to stand next to him if he is standing alone. “If I see him alone in a party, I’ll always stand next to him. Sometimes, he would say, ‘Samir, go. I am okay’. I would reply, ‘Nahin sir. Main yahan se hilne waala nahin hoon jab tak aap nahin jaate’ (No sir, I won’t move till the time you are here). That is the respect he commands.”
Samir Soni shared an incident from the film’s shoot of a rather emotional scene between their characters and said, “Then there was a scene where I say ‘Aapne hamare liye kiya hi kya hai.’ The moment I finish my dialogue, Amit ji would throw a pillow at me.”
Samir also shared that he was completely in awe of Hema Malini when he saw her for the first time. He said that the first scene he had to shoot with her was the one where he is seeing his mother after a few months and asked for her permission to hug her in the scene. “In the first rehearsal, I tentatively hugged Amit ji but I hesitated to hug Hema ji. I asked Hema ji, ‘If you don’t mind, instinctively I feel I should hug you as well as you are playing my mother. Do you mind?’ She replied, ‘Yes, no problem.’ I also told myself, ‘If I keep thinking that they are Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini, I’ll never be able to act’,” he recalled.
Baghban also starred Paresh Rawal, Lillete Dubey, Divya Dutta, and Salman Khan.
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Samir Soni says he ‘hesitated to hug’ Hema Malini in Baghban, hugged Amitabh Bachchan ‘tentatively’: ‘I asked her, do you…’ – The Indian Express
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