Anirban Das (MID-DAY; December 24, 2015)
The promotions for Amitabh Bachchan and Farhan Akhtar-starrer Wazir have begun, but the senior actor has been conspicuous by his absence at the film’s events. Big B, who is shooting in Kolkata for a Sujoy Ghosh production, missed the trailer launch in November and more recently, the unveiling of a song. And if sources are to be believed, he won’t be part of any pre-release marketing activity.
Says a source, “The film hits theatres a fortnight later and Farhan has been attending the promotional events and doing media interactions alone. Bachchan sir has not given any dates for the promotional activities. He is busy with other commitments. When the trailer was rolled out, he was shooting for a TV show and during the song launch early this month, he was in Kolkata shooting for Te3N that also stars Vidya Balan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui.”
Sources close to the project, however, claim that the real reason behind Bachchan not participating in the publicity blitzkrieg is that he is unhappy with the way Farhan has been given more prominence in the film and therefore, “did not bother to manage his dates” for the promotional campaign.
Big B remained unavailable for comment. The film’s director, Bejoy Nambiar says that the actor has done his bit to promote the film. “Despite his hectic shoot schedule, Bachchan sir went out of his way to help us in the post-production stage, recorded a new track with Farhan and if the dates had worked out, he would have definitely made himself available for every promotional activity,” he elaborates.
Producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra says, “He was there for the first trailer launch (in June) and just spent a full day (December 13) singing the friendship song for promotions.”