Mauritius pulls out all stops for Jumma Chumma megastar Amitabh Bachchan
Mauritius pulls out all the stops for the Jumma Chumma megastar.
"Buchchaaan, Buchchaaan" yells the girl with a floppy black hat perched at a saucy angle on her head. Hearing his name with that delicious French twist to it, Amitabh Bachchan saunters over to the attractive teenager, lifts her hat and arranges it on his own head.
It's downtown Port Louis, the Mauritian capital's main bus stand, and the lanky star is playing court jester to a growing audience of commuters and cops.
For three weeks this paradisical little island with emerald waters washing its blindingly white sand beaches has been taken over by the Bombay film world, the island's temporary shehenshahs. The film Hum with its mega-star cast is being shot here and the Government of Mauritius seems to have handed over the keys to producer Ramesh Sharma.
The paramilitary Special Mobile Force (SMF) - Mauritius doesn't have an army - has loaned its armoured vehicles and helicopters to director Mukul Anand. A helicopter swoops down over the restricted area of the docks with Bachchan - for real, not the dummy - dangling on a rope from it. Short of sending in the marines, the SMF is on standby for all help.
The Mauritian Government has allowed cameras into the airport to help love on its flights of fancy: Shilpa Shirodkar dances on a wing of Chateau Benaras, the Air Mauritius 747 parked on the tarmac, while Govinda serenades her from below.
Meanwhile back at the docks, Amitabh Bachchan carries on his one-man variety show. Anupam Kher and Annu Kapoor - both diabolical in ad-detergent white suits - and Kimi Katkar almost fall off their chairs laughing while he gives an animated account of his scariest roller-coaster ride.
When a bit of featherlike white hair falls off his head (he plays elder brother to Rajni Kant and Govinda) Bachchan calls out to his make-up man: "Mera budhapa mere haath me aa gaya" (my old age has fallen into my hands). Next come Bachchan's anecdotes about his son Abhishek upstaging him in Mauritius by helping Deepa Sahi emerge out of the waters.
Gaiety is infectious here. It's almost as if the upbeat mood of Jumma, chumma has spilled over. A little bird tells you that the song, which made this film a hit almost before the cameras began to roll, was really courtesy Bachchan who tinkered with it. "It's not at all like shooting, this is like home," says Sharma.
Meanwhile, in the boats sailing by, people can be seen crowding the decks to wave to the film stars. The Mauritians are crazy about Indian films: shown thrice a week on television. And sometimes, the celluloid gods upstage the others.
The audience abandoned a performance of the Ramayana and mobbed the Indian film stars. Anupam Kher had them in splits when he told them that as a child he played Ram, when he got a little older it was Meghnath, and now it only Ravan. Bachchan, in more serious mode, had the pundits and swamis floored when he recited a shlok from the Ramayana.
All this, and paradise too? For the Indian film industry, Mauritius is the new mecca with its beaches and azure waters. As it is, with Kashmir out of bounds, Indian film makers are desperately seeking locations for frolicking lovers. And with the Mauritian Government laying on the red carpet, the Bombay-Mauritius flight is now going to be full of Indian film makers.