Time was when, 3-4 years ago, every filmmaker in tinselville shied away from casting Abhishek Bachchan in their ventures after the actor had starred in more than ten flops in a row.

How things change! The same Abhishek, following the critical acclaim for his performance in Mani Rathnam's 'Yuva' and the huge box office success of a host of his ventures like Aditya Chopra's 'Dhoom', Shaad Ali's 'Bunty Aur Babli', Ramgopal Verma's 'Sarkaar', and Anubhav Sinha's 'Dus', seems to have suddenly become the new lucky mascot for filmmakers in Mumbai.

While a host of films starring Abhishek in lead roles like Karan Johar's 'Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna', Rohan Sippy's 'Bluffmaster', J P Dutta's 'Umrao Jaan', Sanjay Gadhvi's 'Dhoom II' are either ready to hit theatres in the coming year or are in advanced stages of production, the last year has also seen Abhishek in a series of special appearances or cameos in Bollywood films.

After a cameo appearance in Mahesh Manjrekar's 'Rakht' and Kunal Kohli's Saif Ali Khan-Rani Mukherjee starrer 'Hum Tum' a couple of years ago, Abhishek has this year been seen in a series of special appearances, in the Saif-Preity Zinta starrer ‘Salaam Namaste', the Uday Chopra-Tanisha starrer 'Neal N Nikki', Sujoy Ghosh's 'Home Delivery' and Apurva Lakhia's 'Ek Ajnabee'.

All of which reminds one of the scenario in the 80s when superstar Amitabh Bachchan was seen in a host of special or 'friendly' appearances in films like ‘Andha Kanoon', ‘Giraftaar' and 'Insaaniyat'.