by Subhash K Jha

Diehard Bachchan loyalist Apoorva Lakhia who says his second film is a homage to the superstardom of Amitabh Bachchan, took his just-released film to the Leelavati on Saturday evening and showed it to the convalescing mega-star.

"It was something that was bothering me," says Lakhia, now inundated with reviews accusing him of upfront plagiarism. "How could Mr Bachchan not watch the film that was made entirely as a tribute to his talents? His illness really took the pleasure out my my film. Now that he's recovering I carried the film to the hospital. He saw it and really enjoyed it."

Apoorva is undaunted by charges of plagiarism. "I always knew I was re-making Man On Fire, and I never hid that fact. Initially I was tempted to re-locate the kidnapping story in UP and Bihar. But then we got to know that Prakash Jha's Apaharan is coming at around the same time. So we took the story to Bangkok. There're three different versions of the film including one in French. For me the challenge of presenting Asia's greatest star-actor in a unique way was the best part of remaking Man On Fire.

"Mr Bachchan has already been seen in seven different films in the last one year. I wanted him to be the larger-than-life loner hero like John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. I wanted him to be Mount Everest. I think I've succeeded in doing that."