Abhishek Bachchan reveals how Aishwarya Rai had to get creative to stitch a fat suit for him on Mani Ratnam's Guru sets

During a recent conversation, Abhishek Bachchan recalled how his wife Aishwarya Rai had to stitch a fat suit for him for Mani Ratnam's Guru. Read on to know full story.

By Krishma Sharma

Updated on Jan 28, 2025 | 02:14 PM IST | 78.2K

Pic Courtesy: Guru IMDb

Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai shared screen space together in Mani Ratnam’s Guru, which was released back in 2007. Recently, the actor shared an interesting anecdote while he remembered his now-wife stitching a big fat suit for him after the director unexpectedly decided to shoot a song.

While speaking at a recent session during G5A Cinema House’s Mani Ratnam retrospective, Abhishek Bachchan shared an interesting anecdote from the time he was working with Mani Ratnam on Guru. He remembered during the shoot they were staying in a guest house when the filmmaker came up to him and asked to rehearse with choreographer, Brinda Gopal.

In response to this, the actor remembered pointing out that they were supposed to shoot the younger version of Gurukant Desai and not the song. Nonetheless, when Bachchan went down, he saw the choreographer perplexed and realized that the director had thrown one of his ‘googlies.’

The King actor shared that the song Ek Lo Ek Muft, composed by AR Rahman and sung by Bappi Lahiri had arrived that morning in its rough version which he called a “click track" for shooting, without the full music.

“He had previously given me two months to gain weight. That night, I still remember that Ameira (costume designer Ameira Punvani) and Aishwarya made a fat suit for me by stitching kambals (blankets) together. Then they took some shady gray stuff and put it on my hair. He (Mani) was like, ‘shave your head.’ I said, ‘But we are still shooting the younger portions.’ Amid all this, I was performing to a click track," recalled Abhishek.

He humorously further added that by the time they were ready to shoot the part of the song featuring Aishwarya Rai’s dance sequence, Rahman had finalized and sent the complete track. “Then she started dancing, and I was standing there thinking, ‘What is happening?!’” says Abhishek.

The actor went on to remember shooting in the intense conditions where Mani Ratnam made him wear a fat suit in 60-degree Celsius heat. “It was summer, and we were shooting in stone caves. In that song, you can actually see the rubber from some of the dancers’ shoes melting onto the stones,” he said.