Big B forced to re-dub Agneepath in one day: Audience tearing up seats
In the Diwali special episode of Kaun Banega Crorepati, Amitabh Bachchan entertained the audience with his iconic monologue from Agneepath and shared information about the voice modulation challenges of the film. Varun Dhawan and directors Raj & DK praised Bachchan’s stellar performance and his influence on new actors.
In the Diwali special episode of quiz show Kaun Banega Crorepati 18, host Amitabh Bachchan shared an interesting anecdote related to his film Agneepath. This film was a huge hit, in which his character Vijay Dinanath Chauhan became iconic. The actor, while speaking to guests Varun Dhawan and director duo Raj and DK, revealed that he has drastically changed his voice for the character. However, it was rejected by the audience, and he was forced to re-dub it in his normal voice within a day.
During the episode, actor Varun Dhawan, who will soon be seen in Citadel Honey Bunny, said, “The film (Agneepath) is still incredible, and your character is iconic”, to which Raj and DK said, “You are a hero. There have been so many generations that even new actors try to capture your style in certain scenes. I tell them that only you can really adopt that character.” When Varun Dhawan asked how he played Vijay’s character. Big B shares anecdote on how he controlled his voice.
“I will tell you a fact – some things are unplanned,” he said. Amitabh Bachchan further added, “On the first day of shooting, I still didn’t understand how to portray him. I was in the make-up room and called Mukul Anand and suggested giving Vijay a different, deeper voice. He Agreed, and that’s how we decided on it. There was a guy who used to go to composer Kalyanji-Anandji’s house to do similar heavy vocals, so I thought, why not make Vijay’s voice after that, later I learned that the man came from an underworld background, which fits the essence of Vijay’s character perfectly.
However the audience did not like it. “When the film released, the producer called to say there was chaos in the theatres. The audience was tearing up seats and telling the sound department, ‘This doesn’t sound like Amitabh; fix the sound system!’ So, to address this, I had to re-dub the entire film in my normal voice, but that initial voice was very impressive,” he revealed.
During the episode, he also recited the entire monologue of Agneepath, surprising the audience and special guests.
