Aditi Rao Hydari talks about working with Amitabh Bachchan

Aditi Rao Hydari is currently basking in the success of her latest project, director Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s period drama streaming series ‘Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar’, where her performance and dance sequences have been receiving immense praise from all quarters, even though the show has got mixed reviews. Ever since she made her on-screen debut in 2006, Aditi has worked with legends, including Mani Ratnam, Aamir Khan, Sanjay Dutt, Arvind Swami, Vijay Sethupathi and Prakash Raj, in significant projects.

Recently, she opened up about working with Bollywood’s ‘shahenshah’ Amitabh Bachchan in Bejoy Nambiar’s ‘Wazir’. Dubbing it an amazing experience, she said, “I was literally jumping up and down when I was told that I would be doing ‘Wazir’. I never thought I would get an opportunity to work with him. It was incredible to be around him. I can’t even describe how insane it was. He has this presence. As soon as he walks into a room, you feel like standing up,” she said during a chat with ‘Humans of Bombay’.

“But he’s also got this amazing childlike excitement when he’s on the set. He was in a wheelchair throughout that film and he used to whir around on it on the set. It was just so amazing to see him like that,” she mentioned.

She also noted that Bachchan never leaves the set to rest in his van. Aditi recounted an instance that showcased his ‘kindness and generosity’. “We were doing a scene wherein he is speaking to me and I am just listening and it had a huge dialogue. The camera was on him and over my shoulder. When he was delivering his lines, I was just watching him and I started crying. And then, it was my turn to be filmed. I just assumed, him being a senior actor, somebody else would give me cues or he would do it in a plain manner. I was stupid to have assumed that because he’s a true artist and he loves what he does. He did the scene for me again with full emotions, with his complete heart, in the same way that he did it for his own take,” she added.

“It just moved me to tears again. And I was like, ‘That’s so incredible’,” she noted.