Waqt: The Race Against Time or simply known as Waqt (; ) is a 2005 Indian Hindi-language drama film directed and produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah. Based on a Gujarati play by Aatish Kapadia, the film stars an ensemble cast of Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Priyanka Chopra, Shefali Shetty Shah, Rajpal Yadav and Boman Irani. It follows the journey of Ishwar Chandra Thakur (Bachchan), an old rich businessman who unexpectedly turns very strict to his spoiled son Aditya Thakur (Kumar) to teach him life lessons before it is too late.
Shah wanted to make a film about a grounded father-son relationship differing from standard Bollywood father-son stories. Impressed after watching Kapadia's play, Shah bought the rights for a film adaptation. Principal photography was done on 14 sets at Filmistan Studio in Mumbai and a song was filmed in Leh, Ladakh. The music was composed by Anu Malik and the lyrics were written by Sameer, with the exception of one song written by Kapadia.
Budgeted at 110 million, Waqt was released theatrically on 22 April 2005. It became a box office success, grossing over 424.8 million, thus ranking as the 7th highest-grossing Bollywood film of 2005. Waqt was nominated at Filmfare Awards for Best Supporting Actress (Shefali Shah) and Best Comedian (Yadav). In addition, Shefali Shah won the Stardust Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.
Plot Ishwarchand Thakur and Sumitra Thakur are a married couple who run a toy factory together. They have a son named Aditya Thakur, who is spoiled and has no interest in responsibility or his direction in life except wanting to become a film actor. Sumitra scolds Ishwar for always spoiling Aditya and pampering him too much. After refusing to show up for a marriage proposal, The situation deteriorates when Aditya elopes and secretly marries his girlfriend Pooja, the daughter of Ishwar's rival Nattu without telling his parents.
When Pooja becomes pregnant, Ishwar and Sumitra decide to force Aditya to understand his responsibilities in caring for his wife and child. They throw Aditya and Pooja out of their house, and the couple moves into a small house in the garden of the house. Ishwar makes it very difficult for Aditya to live on his own by removing the fuse for the fan and not allowing him to take food from home. Ishwar loathes that Aditya is a selfish person and fears his soon-to-be-born child would be an orphan with someone like him as his father. Aditya then starts to change and works hard to become a responsible father and husband by taking a job as a risky stuntman for films. However, Aditya also begins to hate his father; they do not speak to each other for a long time, during which Aditya becomes aware of his role as a father.
Ishwar, who wants to ensure his son is secure and responsible, is suffering from final stage lung cancer. He fears telling Aditya the truth about it, as he knows it will devastate him the most; therefore, he hides it and covers it up every time by being strict and harsh towards him. Aditya becomes a responsible man and finds out about his father's illness when he attends Aditya's performance on stage. Aditya steps onto the stage and asks the audience to pray for his father to stay alive until his son's birth. Ishwar survives until the birth; the child is a boy, whom Ishwar names after himself, and he dies. Aditya welcomes children into his father's toy factory and, in the presence of his family, including his toddler Ishwar, plays with a lonely, disabled boy. The spirit of Ishwar touches the flowers in Sumitra's hair, reminding her of earlier times.
Cast The cast is listed below:
Amitabh Bachchan as Ishwar Chandra Thakur, Aditya's father Akshay Kumar as Aditya "Adi" Thakur, Ishwar's son Priyanka Chopra as Pooja Singh Thakur, Aditya's wife and Ishwar's daughter-in-law Shefali Shetty Shah as Sumitra Thakur, Ishwar's wife and Aditya's mother Boman Irani as Natham "Nattu" Singh, Pooja's father Rajpal Yadav as Laxman Singh,Ishwar's Servant Asawari Joshi as Ashalata Singh, Pooja's mother Rajeev Mehta as Jolly Hemant Pandey Benjamin Gilani as a Director Anu Malik (cameo) as a DJ in the song, "Miraksam"
Production
Development and casting Director Vipul Amrutlal Shah wanted to make a film about a father-son relationship that would be different from "standard Bollywood father-son" stories. Shah wanted to explore nuances of the relationship and touch upon themes about a father-son relationship that is grounded in reality, which had not yet been depicted in Bollywood. After watching Aatish Kapadia's Gujarati play Awajo Vahala Phari Malishu, Shah liked it and bought its film adaptation rights. Kapadia, who had co-written Shah's 2002 heist thriller Aankhen with him, adapted his play for the screen.
Shah said of the film's theme; "It is an unusual story of a father and a son. It is very, very real and believable. I can assure you that any father-son duo of any economic strata will be able to identify with the father and son in my film." Shah also said the film is "straight from the heart", and that it "is about the upbringing that a father gives to a kid. And that is the biggest job and challenge in a father's life. So it automatically leads to a lot of emotional conflict within the family."
Shah said he felt the film's title suits its theme perfectly, saying "Waqt is called The Race Against Time because there is a target that both father and son have set out to achieve, and for that they've got limited time. So there really is a race against the clock. If they don't achieve their targets in that time, life will take a very disastrous turn. They each have their own target." The film was produced by Shah under his production company Blockbuster Movie Entertainers and was presented by Manmohan Shetty's company Entertainment One and Kishore Lulla and Sunil Lulla's company Eros International. It was the first major co-production for Eros International.
Shah cast the film's six main characters. In late May 2003, he said he had cast Amitabh Bachchan and Akshay Kumar, both of whom starred in his previous film Aankhen, as the father and son characters and that he hoped to cast his wife Shefali Shah as one of the film's two female leads. Shah cast Priyanka Chopra in role of Kumar's wife after seeing her performance in her debut film The Hero: Love Story of a Spy (2003). It is the fourth and final film to date to star the successful pairing of Kumar and Chopra, who appeared together in Andaaz (2003), Mujhse Shaadi Karogi (2004) and Aitraaz (2004).
Rajpal Yadav and Boman Irani completed the cast. Shah had planned to cast Bachchan along with his real-life son Abhishek Bachchan but their busy schedules meant they could not commit to the film together. Shah had approached Bachchan with two different scripts and asked him to choose which one he wanted to do with his son. Bachchan chose the script of Waqt: The Race Against Time, but Shah had to wait one year for them to be available together. Shah abandoned the idea and instead cast Kumar for the role. Shah had also approached Paresh Rawal for a role in the film. Shefali Shah, who is younger than Kumar, was cast to play Kumar's character's mother and as the wife of the much-older Bachchan. The director wanted to cast a female actor who had not been paired opposite Bachchan before and while discussing potential contenders for the role, Bachchan suggested Shefali, who he thought would be perfect for the role. Shah was apprehensive to cast his wife, saying, "I thought people would say I was trying to promote my wife. So I didn't mention her name as a possible co-star to Amitji", but Bachchan asked Shah to at least audition her or have her photographed for the role before making a decision. The director did a photography session with Bachchan, Kumar and his wife, and he later said they looked like a family and after fifteen days, Shefali Shah was officially cast in the film.
Characters Bachchan watched Awajo Vahala Phari Malishu, the play on which the film is based, and was attracted to the setting and situations, and the character's relationships and behavior. He said, "I was attracted to just these facts—how these relationships have been built up; and how the interactions, the situations, are brought up; what the characters do, how they behave; the events that take place; and the eventual solution". Bachchan thought the "interesting screenplay" was "really funny" and "quite emotional", and the film's treatment makes it different from other films. Bachchan described his character as a lenient father who has spoilt his son to a great extent but later turns into a "strict father" to teach his son the valuable life lessons, which creates conflict in their lives. According to Bachchan, his character "doesn't really want to be rude to the son but he has to be, because he feels that unless he's rude the son is not going to learn anything. So his behaviour is made to be harsh and rude, and that's how it transpires."
Kumar was drawn to the film because of its story; he said; "When Vipul narrated this story to me, I was very touched by it. In many ways, it is a lot like my own life." Kumar said it was his "most personal film" and that he worked "very honestly" on it. According to Kumar, at one point he was in talks to produce the film with Shah but it could not work out. Chopra said the film has a quality to make people laugh and cry, and described her role as one of a "spoilt brat" and a "supporting wife" who stands by her husband in difficult times, saying "Because she is brought up with every possible luxury that she would want and then suddenly she reaches a point where she has to deal with life and see how difficult it can be".
Shefali said the film's strengths are its "simplicity and honesty", and that she found playing a fifty-year-old woman whose life revolves around her child and husband to be challenging. She felt her character is strong and different from the mothers usually portrayed in Bollywood films, saying: She is someone who has come up the hard way in life and understands the importance of whatever her husband has achieved. She wants her son to understand that and stand on his own feet and achieve what her husband has been able to achieve. Her ability to laugh at situations and her sense of humour when her world is falling apart is her strength.
Yadav found his character of a dimwit to be a "good role", saying, "he reacts very slowly. Although he tries hard but his level of intelligence is only that much." Irani called his character a "loud, brazen, shameless, egotistical" man who "keeps reminding [Bachchan's character] that his son is a useless character because he himself has a wonderful daughter"; he found the character easy to portray, saying he "is a reasonably an easy connect because we do have so many people like that around". Vikram Phadnis designed the costumes for the actors.
Filming
Waqt: The Race Against Time was launched on 24 November 2003 at an event held on Juhu Beach, Mumbai. The Muhurat shot was staged at this event, which started with an audio-visual presentation hosted by Chopra and followed by Bachchan, Kumar and Chopra enacting a live performance on the stage. Shah said he was holding an event on a stage on a public beach, which anyone allowed to attend, because he wanted "the common man to witness and be a part of the mahurat of a Hindi film". Media reported the crew planned to start filming in January or February 2004.