Sonu Sood who was shooting with the mighty Bachchan for the first time in his career was told to do a sequence where he had to get rough with the Legend. Nervous and anxious to begin with, Sood simply froze at the thought of acting so belligerent with the the Big B, and that too on the second day of his shooting with him.
Says an eyewitness, "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 he had to rough up Mr Bachchan he was panic-stricken.
He tried to convince director Puri Jagannath to postpone the sequence, arguing—and not wrongly—that he would be able to handle the aggression against someone so senior and legendary after shooting with him for a while. But Puri wouldn't listen. "
The final straw was the moment when Sonu was supposed to push the Big B to the ground. Known to be a thorough professional Sonu simply refused to do the needful.
Says the source, "Sonu had to say some very rude things to Mr Bachchan on camera. He managed somehow cringing and apologizing after every shot. But when he was told to physically push Mr Bachchan, Sonu staged a walk out. 'Sorry Sir, yeh mujhse nahin hoga, ' he said. "
Apparently the Big B kept persuading Sood to go ahead and give the aggression his best shot.
Says the source, "Mr Bachchan kept urging Sonu to get on with the violent shot. 'Come on, push me, do it!'Mr Bachchan tried to galvanize the nervous young actor into action. But Sonu wouldn't budge. His hands and feet had frozen. He just couldn't get aggressive with an actor he reveres. "
Sonu doesn't deny there was problem. "It's true I just froze when I was told I had get aggressive with Bachchan Saab and even push him down. Come on! This was a man I hero-worshipped from childhood.
I waited ten years to share screen space with him. Now when it is finally happening I was told I had to be extremely rude and violent with him in our very first scene together. "
Sonu pleaded with director Jagannath Puri to postpone the sequence for later. "I wanted to lose my inhibitions 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. Now it's Bachchan Saab. I didn't want to start on that rude note. "
The Big B told Sonu Sood to relax and just get on with it. But for once the young actor refused to take orders from the director.
Apparently director Jagannath Puri cancelled Sonu's leave from the sets on Wednesday to be in Mohali for the Indo-Pak cricket match.
Whether this was in retaliation to Sonu's refusal to get tough with the Big B for the camera, is not confirmed.