By Subhash K Jha

To play an anti-corruption crusader on an indefinite strike to protest against scams and corruption, the Big B Amitabh Bachchan has gone an actual near-starvation diet so that the scenes in the film appear authentic.

Sources from location in Bhopal say the Big B has ceased to even communicate beyond what's necessary.

However on Wednesday there was an unexpected break in the Big B's hunger-strike regime for Satyagrah when director Prakash Jha turned 61.

It happened at the sprawling Ramlila Ground in Bhopal where Prakash was shooting a mammoth public-rally scene with the Big B doing the bhookh-hartaal.

A live musical band was also present for the shooting.

Suddenly all work stopped and everyone in the cast, the Big B, Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor, Manoj Bajpai and Arjun Rampal burst into a live rendering of Happy Birthday for their director.

Recalling the magical moment Prakash Jha says, `We were shooting a critical public sequence with the entire cast and a live band was also there, when suddenly everyone burst into 'Happy Birthday To You' for me.

I hadn't told anyone it was my birthday. I am not a birthday person at all. I have never celebrated my birthday even as a chil.

So on Wednesday at first I was embarrassed and then deeply moved. Not every day do you get Bachchan Saab to sing 'Happy Birthday' with a live band. `

Incidentally the Big B plays an anti-corruption crusader very similar to Anna Hazare.