R Balki Recalls Botched Maruti Versa Shoot Where Amitabh Bachchan Reacted Strongly

Filmmaker and advertising veteran R Balki has revealed his “biggest screw-up” in a career filled with iconic campaigns: a disastrous Maruti Suzuki Versa ad featuring Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan that ended with the megastar swearing on camera and the vehicle itself becoming one of the company’s rare flops.

Speaking on the Cyrus Says podcast, Balki recounted how the 2001 campaign went wrong from the start. Maruti had shown the agency only a picture of a sleek van, promising the final product would look similar. Confident, Balki cast the father-son duo—their first joint endorsement—and shot the commercial in Lonavala. Only on the morning of the shoot did the actual Maruti Versa roll in: a boxy, underwhelming minivan that bore no resemblance to the promised design.

“The idea was simple: Abhishek drives in and says, ‘Hey Dad, look at my new car.’ Amitabh turns around from reading the newspaper and was supposed to praise it,” Balki recalled. Instead, when Big B caught sight of the vehicle, he blurted on a live take, “What is this piece of shit that you have got there?” The entire crew froze, and Balki immediately knew the campaign was doomed.

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Abhishek, understanding the awkwardness of endorsements, tried to stay professional, but even he struggled to climb into the cramped van convincingly. Balki pleaded with Maruti to scrap the campaign, warning that audiences would love seeing the Bachchans together but nobody would buy the car. The company refused and launched the Versa the next day, and the vehicle flopped spectacularly.

“People loved the ad because Amitabh and Abhishek were in it together for the first time, but no one booked the car,” Balki said, laughing at the memory. “I should have just stopped it then and there.” The Versa was quietly discontinued a few years later, while the candid behind-the-scenes story has now become one of Indian advertising’s most legendary cautionary tales.

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