R Balki directs ad featuring six cricket legends that carries the above message

R Balki (of Paa fame) is back to shooting ads. Last weekend, he shot an ad featuring six legends of cricket, World-Cup winning captains Clive Lloyd, Arjuna Ranatunga, Steve Waugh, Alan Border, Imran Khan and our own Kapil Dev.

All is not lost

"It was magical!" exults Balki who is getting ready to direct his next feature film with Amitabh Bachchan. It will also star one of the cricket champs he shot the ad with last week.

World-Cup winning captains Clive Lloyd, Alan Border, Kapil Dev, Imran Khan, Arjuna Ranatunga and Steve Waugh

The message of the ad is to keep cricket clean. Grimaces Balki, "There's such a mess happening in world cricket these days.

I wanted to shoot an ad with six of the cleanest, most representational super-heroes of cricket. I wanted them to tell our players that all is not lost. That cricket can still be a whole lot cleaner and healthy and productive fun."

Getting all six cricket icons from various parts of the world to shoot together in Mumbai was not a big deal for Balki since Percept Ltd and its head honcho Shailendra Singh, who have produced the ad, organised the whole event.

Says Balki, "These were all cricket legends, but so down-to-earth humble and unassuming. I had no problems accommodating six such jumbo-sized stalwarts in one frame.

They behaved like professional actors, took instructions closely and did exactly what they had to."

No tantrums, delays

He continues, "It was easier shooting the ad with these six cricket superstars than with some of our stars. There were no tantrums or delays. I had not met any of these cricket legends before this ad, except of course, Kapil Dev."

Balki hit it off really well with Steve Waugh. "He's a really cool guy, really sorted out about his celebrity status. We spent some time together chatting and I'm keen to work with him again."

He might get Waugh to play a role in his next film to start later this year, with Amitabh Bachchan in the lead.

The filmmaker who gave the Big B two of his most challenging roles in recent times in Cheeni Kum and specially Paa, is all set to create cinematic history again with the Big B.